Maradona tirade to be investigated: FIFA
Last Updated: Friday, October 16, 2009 | 1:59 PM ET
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Argentina coach Diego Maradona may face a FIFA disciplinary hearing. (Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press)FIFA's disciplinary committee is being asked to investigate coach Diego Maradona's profanity-filled tirade on television after Argentina qualified for next year's World Cup.
After Wednesday's 1-0 victory over Uruguay, the former playing great used expletives on live television, much of them directed at reporters and his critics.
"The reports we have received so far leave us no other alternative but to ask the disciplinary committee of FIFA to open a case against the coach, Diego Armando Maradona," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Friday.
Maradona — who led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title and the 1990 final — has faced intense pressure during Argentina's lacklustre qualifying campaign, which included a 6-1 drubbing in Bolivia and a 3-1 home loss to Brazil.
Argentina pulled through and won its final two qualifying matches, but neither win was convincing.
Before the wins, polls showed a majority of Argentina's fans thought Maradona was unfit to coach the national team despite his success as a player.
Maradona stood his ground in a radio interview Thursday before Blatter made his announcement. He said his "very big outburst" came after a week of heavy criticism.
"If someone feels wounded, I'll apologize if they want," he said. "And if not, I'm sorry."
Later in his interview with Argentina's Radio Continental, he said, "I have nothing to apologize for." He called his media critics "anti-Argentine" and said he won't forgive them for wanting "Argentina to be left out of the World Cup."
Julio Grondona, Argentine Football Association president and the man who appointed Maradona, told The Associated Press on Friday that "if it were another coach or player, the matter would not have had such importance."
Grondona, who is also Blatter's No. 2 official at FIFA, said "everybody knows he's a temperamental person and he's already said he won't speak like that again."
Grondona predicted Maradona's comments would soon blow over.
With files from The Associated Press
