Conspiracies, illegalities, and wasted talent.
I watched Maradona: The Fall a few days ago. It’s a documentary about Maradona’s rise and fall at the 1994 World Cup, held in the USA, but starts with how he got to the tournament in the first place. After Maradona’s 15-month ban for failing a drug test, Maradona left Napoli and ended up at Sevilla. I say “ended up” but, as you’ll see in the documentary, the move was orchestrated by Sepp Blatter who seemed to smile throughout the whole thing like it was a joke.
From Sevilla, he showed signs of his former self until he defied orders not to leave for an international friendly and swore at the manager—former Argentina manager Carlos Bilardo—when substituted. The relationship was soured and he ultimately left but somehow found himself in the Argentina squad for the 1994 World Cup after some intense physical rehabilitation and a shady bodybuilder in his corner who claimed that he could get him back in shape. The rest, of course, was history.
While I enjoyed the documentary a lot, it reminded me of how men in power will give liberties to people who will make them and their institutions look better. FIFA were complicit in a lot of this and so many others who said yes when they should have said no and not backed down. For a sport that makes a big show of “respecting the badge”, that unwritten rule doesn’t have exemption clauses for GOATs.