Argentine legend, Diego Maradona has apologised for questioning the
impartiality of the referee in charge of England’s last-16 penalty
shootout win over Colombia.
Maradona had landed himself in hot water with FIFA over his
outburst at US official Mark Geiger when he described England’s win on
Tuesday as a “monumental robbery”.
But after a firm rebuke by football’s governing body the 1986 World Cup winner issued a mea culpa on Instagram.
“Caught up by the excitement and support for Colombia the other day, I said some things that, I admit, are unacceptable.
“My apologies to FIFA and its president (Gianni Infantino):
even if sometimes my opinions are different to those of the referees I
have total respect for their work.”
He admitted that “although I sometimes have opinions contrary
to those of referees, I have absolute respect for the work — not easy —
which (FIFA) and the referees do.”
Maradona, who had come out in support of Colombia following
Argentina’s premature elimination, blamed Geiger for the South American
side’s loss in an ill-tempered affair.
He had told Venezuelan TV channel Telesur: “I apologise to all the Colombian people, but the players are not to blame.
“Here is a gentleman (FIFA referees boss Pierluigi Collina) who
decides to choose a referee who, if he had Googled him, (he would know)
can’t be used for a match of this magnitude.”
Geiger was suspended from international football for six months
after several controversial decisions during a 2015 Gold Cup semi-final
between Panama and Mexico.
Maradona had attended the Colombia v England match as a guest of
FIFA and was pictured before the game in Moscow wearing a Colombia
shirt.
FIFA had responded, saying it was “extremely sorry” to read the comments from “a player who has written the history of our game”.
It added: “Furthermore, it also considers the additional
comments and insinuations made as being entirely inappropriate and
completely unfounded.”
-NAN