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World Cup Comment: Diego Maradona's Ban - Not A Deterrent, Not A Punishment
Goal.com's Ewan Macdonald weighs up the issue of the unique coach's spell on the sidelines...
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Nov 15, 2009 8:20:03 PM
For his, oh, let's say, unsavoury actions following Argentina's 1-0 win over Uruguay in their vital World Cup qualifier, Diego Maradona has been banned from all football for two months.
Oh, how the Albiceleste boss must have trembled as he was hauled before the great and the good of the global game, each grimly exacting their duty of protecting football by bringing their keenly-felt sense of justice to bear on such a grave situation.
Diego's wrongdoing? Saying some naughty words on camera and making some rather unedifying schoolboy gestures - we'll call it chupar and leave it at that - through the window of a bus. Not exactly crime of the century in my book, but then again I don't have FIFA's Disciplinary Code (Article 57*) at my bedside.
Roe versus Wade, the Scopes monkey trial, even Bosman's trip to Strasbourg - great moments of legislative power all. But when FIFA's bespectacled spokesperson intoned the following on Sunday afternoon, the likes of Seneca and Socrates must have stirred from their graves at the rhetorical and jurisprudential at the triumphant holding of the worthy judges:
"The FIFA Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Marcel Mathier, decided today 15 November in Zurich to impose a two month ban on taking part in any football related activity and a 25,000 CHF fine on the head coach of Argentina Diego Armando Maradona, in relation to the disciplinary proceedings related to the incidents following the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Uruguay and Argentina played on 14 October 2009 in Montevideo."
Yes: two whole months out of football! And 25,000 Swiss Francs! (That's around the same amount in US dollars, a shade under £15,000, or 16,500 Euros.) How will Maradona possibly recover from the hammer of the just tribunal?
Well, quite easily - because this is an absolute Potemkin of a punishment.
It need hardly be said that even for a person with such humble beginnings as Maradona, $25,000 is not an inordinate sum. If reports are to be believed, that's equivalent to around less than half of 1% of the back taxes that he owes various governments. It seems an odd amount to pick.
And two months out? Yes, his actions were so grave that he must be kept behind metaphorical lock and key for two whole months - well, as long as the lucrative Spain-Argentina friendly is out of the way first. The Czechs, meanwhile, will be bereft of Diego's presence on December 16th when the sides are scheduled to meet in a friendly.
So, Maradona will miss one pointless match. But that's not all! Read FIFA's grandiose pronouncement again: "a two month ban on taking part in any football related activity." What?! Any football related activity? Will FIFA tap his phone to ensure that he's not working along with his scouts? Shall goons ransack his Playstation collection to remove all traces of PES and FIFA as a teary-eyed Kun and Giannina look on? Will an intern be dispatched from Zurich to Diego's house to commandeer the remote control on Sunday afternoons? Perhaps an absent-minded kick at a can or stone will see besuited men in dark glasses descend from unseen stairwells and emerge from unmarked cars with tasers at the ready.
OK, you get my point: Maradona's punishment is a sham, and 'any football-related activity' translates to 'one match taking place in a dead time of year, carefully selected so as not to upset Argentina's World Cup preparations.' Why bother punishing him in the first place if the method chosen is so transparently merciful?
For what it's worth, I don't think it is FIFA's place to punish him. It is the Argentina national team that has been brought into disrepute here, and, at a stretch, CONMEBOL, for the press conference was on their watch. Maradona could have been dealt with, or not dealt with, locally.
Instead FIFA decided to Get Things Done by bringing Maradona before them, having him apologise and presumably make some noises about leniency, and then coming out with a verdict big on officious verbage but very light on actual, y'know, substance.
To me, the idea that FIFA's time and resources are going towards concocting such 'bans', carefully measuring their coded obligations against the unthinkable outcome of actually having to punish someone, is far more offensive than anything Diego came out with. Either ban the man or don't. Right now it's somewhere in the middle - and the unfortunate conclusion to draw is that this is just how FIFA's Disciplinary Committee like it.
Ewan Macdonald, Goal.com
*"Anyone who insults someone in any way, especially by using offensive
gestures or language, or who violates the principles of fair play or
whose behaviour is unsporting in any other way may be subject to
sanctions in accordance with art. 10 ff."
And Article 10 itself:
"Both natural and legal persons are punishable by the following sanctions:
a) warning;
b) reprimand;
c) fine;
d) return of awards."
Oh, how the Albiceleste boss must have trembled as he was hauled before the great and the good of the global game, each grimly exacting their duty of protecting football by bringing their keenly-felt sense of justice to bear on such a grave situation.
Diego's wrongdoing? Saying some naughty words on camera and making some rather unedifying schoolboy gestures - we'll call it chupar and leave it at that - through the window of a bus. Not exactly crime of the century in my book, but then again I don't have FIFA's Disciplinary Code (Article 57*) at my bedside.
Roe versus Wade, the Scopes monkey trial, even Bosman's trip to Strasbourg - great moments of legislative power all. But when FIFA's bespectacled spokesperson intoned the following on Sunday afternoon, the likes of Seneca and Socrates must have stirred from their graves at the rhetorical and jurisprudential at the triumphant holding of the worthy judges:
"The FIFA Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Marcel Mathier, decided today 15 November in Zurich to impose a two month ban on taking part in any football related activity and a 25,000 CHF fine on the head coach of Argentina Diego Armando Maradona, in relation to the disciplinary proceedings related to the incidents following the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Uruguay and Argentina played on 14 October 2009 in Montevideo."
Yes: two whole months out of football! And 25,000 Swiss Francs! (That's around the same amount in US dollars, a shade under £15,000, or 16,500 Euros.) How will Maradona possibly recover from the hammer of the just tribunal?
Well, quite easily - because this is an absolute Potemkin of a punishment.
It need hardly be said that even for a person with such humble beginnings as Maradona, $25,000 is not an inordinate sum. If reports are to be believed, that's equivalent to around less than half of 1% of the back taxes that he owes various governments. It seems an odd amount to pick.
And two months out? Yes, his actions were so grave that he must be kept behind metaphorical lock and key for two whole months - well, as long as the lucrative Spain-Argentina friendly is out of the way first. The Czechs, meanwhile, will be bereft of Diego's presence on December 16th when the sides are scheduled to meet in a friendly.
So, Maradona will miss one pointless match. But that's not all! Read FIFA's grandiose pronouncement again: "a two month ban on taking part in any football related activity." What?! Any football related activity? Will FIFA tap his phone to ensure that he's not working along with his scouts? Shall goons ransack his Playstation collection to remove all traces of PES and FIFA as a teary-eyed Kun and Giannina look on? Will an intern be dispatched from Zurich to Diego's house to commandeer the remote control on Sunday afternoons? Perhaps an absent-minded kick at a can or stone will see besuited men in dark glasses descend from unseen stairwells and emerge from unmarked cars with tasers at the ready.
OK, you get my point: Maradona's punishment is a sham, and 'any football-related activity' translates to 'one match taking place in a dead time of year, carefully selected so as not to upset Argentina's World Cup preparations.' Why bother punishing him in the first place if the method chosen is so transparently merciful?
For what it's worth, I don't think it is FIFA's place to punish him. It is the Argentina national team that has been brought into disrepute here, and, at a stretch, CONMEBOL, for the press conference was on their watch. Maradona could have been dealt with, or not dealt with, locally.
Instead FIFA decided to Get Things Done by bringing Maradona before them, having him apologise and presumably make some noises about leniency, and then coming out with a verdict big on officious verbage but very light on actual, y'know, substance.
To me, the idea that FIFA's time and resources are going towards concocting such 'bans', carefully measuring their coded obligations against the unthinkable outcome of actually having to punish someone, is far more offensive than anything Diego came out with. Either ban the man or don't. Right now it's somewhere in the middle - and the unfortunate conclusion to draw is that this is just how FIFA's Disciplinary Committee like it.
Ewan Macdonald, Goal.com
*"Anyone who insults someone in any way, especially by using offensive
gestures or language, or who violates the principles of fair play or
whose behaviour is unsporting in any other way may be subject to
sanctions in accordance with art. 10 ff."
And Article 10 itself:
"Both natural and legal persons are punishable by the following sanctions:
a) warning;
b) reprimand;
c) fine;
d) return of awards."
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