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REVEALED 30 YEARS AFTER; MARADONA QUALIFIED FOR RED CARD BEFORE 1990 WORLD CUP FINAL MATCH!

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Diego Maradona could have been shown a red card before the 1990 World Cup final after swearing ‘profusely’ during the national anthems – according to the referee in charge, who he later called a ‘thief’, a report by UK’s Daily Mail has revealed.

Referee Edgardo Codesal revealed the Argentina had been swearing during national anthems

Maradona and Argentina managed to reach the final against West Germany at that edition of the tournament but went on to lose the clash 1-0, having two men sent off in the process.

Pedro Monzon and Gustavo Dezotti were both dismissed by referee Edgardo Codesal.

And Codesal has now suggested Maradona might have been lucky himself that he was in charge, as another official would have had enough reason to send him off.  

‘I could have sent him off before the game started as he was swearing profusely during the national anthem,’ Codesal told Uruguayan outlet Tirando Paredes when he was asked about dealing with Maradona.

‘Later when I decided to send off Monzon, Maradona approached me and claimed I was a thief and on the FIFA payroll.

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Maradona protesting with Codesal during the hot tempered clash in Rome in 1990

‘I saw Maradona do some remarkable things on the pitch and also saw that his knee had ballooned from aggressive tackling.

‘As a player he was the best but as a person he was an unpleasant person and one of the worst I’ve gotten to know in my life.’

Maradona was quoted at the time as suggesting Codesal did not want Argentina to win the game, having seen West Germany win the game through a controversial 85th minute penalty.

‘Our players ran hard, but then came this man who ruined everything for us,’ Maradona said in 1990.

‘This man was scared that we would get to penalties. He wanted to make the Italian people happy. The black hand of this man expelled Monzon for a normal action, and later he called a penalty against us from his imagination.

‘I have been crying for a long time. Football has been my life and I wasn’t crying because we got second place, but because of the way we lost. This man didn’t have any right to call that penalty.’

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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