On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his World Cup dope test, Argentina legend Diego Maradona declared himself as a victim of Fifa’s disgraceful conspiracy during the 1994 World Cup in the USA.
On 25th June 1994, the Argentina great was selected to undergo a doping test. Maradona was presented with the book “El último Maradona: Cuando A Diego Le Cortaron Las Piernas”(The last Maradona: when cut the legs of Diego) by Andrés Burgos and Alejandro Wall on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of one of the biggest doping case in the history of the World Cup. The authors thought there were several elements of conspiracy behind Maradona’s suspension. According to the authors, it was unacceptable to the American that a country aligned with the ideas of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s government would taste success on American soil.
Four days after Argentina’s 2-1 the victory over Nigeria, FIFA announced that Maradona had failed a drug test and tested positive for ephedrine and four other substances which were not disclosed. Suspicions about Maradona started during the practice sessions of Argentina. After scoring a brilliant goal against Greece, Maradona celebrated strangely with his face on camera. It was reported that American police visited Argentina camp at least three times with sniffer dogs.
The book says that Diego Maradona was taking 10 pills per day to reduce his weight after he was recalled to the national team for World Cup duty. He hired Daniel Cerrini, a former bodybuilder and with the help of “personal trainer”, slimmed down fast. Alejandro Wall thinks Julio Grondona, then the president of Argentine
Football Association had to choose to whom he owed more loyalty,
Maradona or Fifa and he chose FIFA when he should have protected Maradona. There was irregularity in the rebuttal and the AFA decided not to defend Maradona.
Although the official version says that the ephedrine entered Maradona’s body by an error, it was learned that Daniel Cerrini provided ephedrine to Maradona occasionally when he came to the USA for the World Cup. They thought that the treatment for obesity would not be a major issue with Fifa’s doping policy but it was too late when they realized it was not the case.
However, while talking to De Zurda, a Bolivian TV channel, Maradona insisted that he was innocent and that his exclusion from the World Cup was a conspiracy led by the Brazilian João Havelange, the then Fifa president along with general secretary Sepp Blatter. He also slammed Fifa for testing seven Costa Rican players after they beat Italy 1-0 last week. “It’s against the rules. Each team takes two to doping. It’s something I’ve suffered. So I can talk about it. Seven players have never been tested,” said Maradona.