Like grandparents bickering over the last biscuit in the barrel the two greatest footballers of all time are at it again. This week Pelé made clear his view that Diego Maradona is not the right man to be leading Argentina to the World Cup in South Africa. Speaking in Mexico, Pelé said that long serving AFA president Julio Grondona should never have given the role of head coach to Maradona. “Maradona, as everyone says has no experience but it is not his fault, blame Mr. Grondona and the others who gave him the job.” The Brazilian appeared to be shining the spotlight on an error by Grondona but he stopped short of giving Maradona’s coaching abilities any sort of endorsement. “I think the whole controversy of Argentina’s classification was not the fault of Maradona. It is the first time he has worked as coach.” Incidentally Pelé is not alone in thinking Maradona is not the man for the job as a survey last year showed 70% of the Argentine public would also rather see another coach take them to the World Cup. It seems that Pelé and Maradona never miss the chance to put the boot into the other and these comments join the long list of existing jibes in the ongoing feud between the two. Last year Pelé took another swipe as he claimed Maradona is not even the best player to come out of Argentina let alone the best player in the world. Amazon.co.uk Widgets While Pelé admitted the that Maradona was a great player it is Alfredo Di Stéfano who the Brazilian rates as the greatest Argentine footballer of all time. “Maradona could not kick with his right foot and did not score with his head. The only time he scored an important goal with his head, he used his hand.” On that occasion Pelé found few in Argentina agreeing with him, despite Di Stéfano’s record of 418 goals in 510 games for Real Madrid. Pelé’s launched this attack in response to Maradona’s claims the same week that the Brazilian was less of a player for never testing himself in Europe’s top leagues. “He won more World Cups but playing in Europe is another thing.” While in Europe the Argentine guided Napoli to two Scudetto titles, the only Serie A wins in the club’s history. Pelé meanwhile never played for a European club, he did however come to prominence with his performances in Sweden during the 1958 World Cup. When Pelé did eventually leave his homeland to play for New York Cosmos of the North American League he best days were already behind him. Maradona on the other hand still had plenty to give when he returned home from Italy to play for Boca Juniors. The recent bickering between the two has put the bed the good feeling that was fostered between the two when Pele appeared on Maradona’s chatshow, La Noche del Diez , back in 2005. On the show Pelé thanked Maradona for sympathising with his son who was in jail at the time for drug offences. “You are an example for him because you are a conqueror. Your program is going out to the world, and I think together we can do many things in the world to help a lot of people.” The love-in continued as the two greats of the game swapped national shirts, had a game of head tennis and even got the guitars out for an impromptu jam session. After the show Maradona was cagy on the subject of which one of them really was the greatest player of all time. “My mother says it was me and Pelé’s mother says it was him.” Pelé’s appearance on the show was a surprise to the football community. A few years before both men had published autobiographies which contained disparaging remarks about the other. In Maradona’s book, I Am Diego , he made the allegation that Pelé has lost his virginity during a homosexual relationship he had as a teenager. This time Pelé chose not to respond, a move made out of respect to Maradona’s poor health at the time according the Brazilian’s close friend Celso Grellet. “Maradona said that Pelé had a homosexual experience. It is not true, but Pelé is a big man and decided that he would not respond.” “Pelé is heavily involved in the anti-drugs campaign, particularly the abuse of drugs in sport, and Maradona is clearly an ill man. Pelé thought it was best not to reply because no one could possibly take Maradona seriously.” In his book Maradona put Pelé at number one in his list of his favourite footballers of all time. Although he honoured him as a great player Maradona felt Pelé let football down. “As a player he had it all but didn't make the most of it to raise the status of football.” Maradona highlighted Pelé’s lack of action on protecting the welfare of footballers. “I'd have liked to see him put himself forward as president of an association to defend players’ rights like I did. I'd like to have seen him look after Garrincha and not let him die in misery. I'd like to see him fight the rich and powerful that are damaging football.” Celso Grellet was quick to nonsense these claims as well and put the whole thing down to jealousy on Maradona’s part. “There is no doubt that Maradona has made ludicrous allegations, the one about Pelé 's sexuality being just one of many, as a result of pure envy.” One event which angered Maradona was when Argentine president Carlos Menem invited Pelé to his country. Grellet explains how Maradona’s nose was put out of joint by the Brazilian and the then serving president. “Menem invited him to the country as his special guest because Pelé was his favourite player. It angered Maradona that the Argentine people might place Pelé above him.” The decade of disagreement between the two also kicked off at the gala ceremony to award the duo the joint honour of FIFA’s Player of the Century. It was decided that both men would receive the award but Maradona had other ideas about how the night should go. After picking up his award Maradona did not hang around on stage to welcome Pelé, instead the Argentine bolted for the exit. “I didn't like the fact that I had to go on before Pelé. I just didn't like it. I grabbed my prize and left.” With FIFA keen to acknowledge Pelé they came up with the idea of splitting the award after Maradona won the online poll by a distance. Maradona was at his controversial best as he accepted his award and then snubbed Pelé by fleeing. “I dedicate this award to the Argentine people, Fidel Castro, my wife Claudia and all the players in the world that I love and respect. The people voted for me. I feel good in my head, serene. I'm happy and proud.” By the time Pelé got to the platform Maradona was on his way to the airport, clearly in no mood to share his stage with anyone. “I would have liked Maradona to be there to join me on the platform, but he had already left.” So did FIFA make the right choice to award the Player of the Century to both men or should have Di Stéfano walked away with the honour? Everybody has their own opinion on who comes out on top in the debate between Pelé and Maradona. If you happen to see either of them on the street both men will be happy to put forward their own case to anyone willing to listen. © Tim Sturtridge & Soccerphile.com Tags Pele Maradona Brazilian football

Fans of a bit of blue will be happy with the news that Argentina has now finally booked their place at South Africa 2010. It’s not just on their famous striped shirts however that the blue will be found but also coming from the mouth of Diego Maradona if his latest press conference is anything to go by. El Diego rounded on his critics from Argentina’s press pack after his side’s hard fought 1-0 victory over Uruguay in Montevideo. Anybody not wishing to see the result should look away now. After joyful scenes on the pitch at the final whistle Maradona cut a very different figure when he emerged for his press conference in the bowels of the Estadio Centenario.

World soccer news for week of March 5 Five games for Cassano for the latest "cassanata" Cassanata. This is the newly-coined Italian word that signifies "a type of bad, infantile behaviour typical of Antonio Cassano". He is a supremely talented 25-year old forward currently playing for Sampdoria on loan from Real Madrid. And he performed a new cassanata on Sunday against Torino. First he scored a wonderful goal saving a point for Sampdoria, earning himself a yellow card for antics like shirt stripping. Then, with two minutes to go, he committed a minor foul against Natali, for which the referee Pierpaoli unjustly sent him off. Not one to take an injustice lightly, Cassano burst into insults and threats, taking off his shirt (again) and throwing it against Pierpaoli. The disciplinary committee sanctioned him with a five-match ban and a 15,000 euro fine. More importantly, this could be the end of Cassano's hopes to be called up for the European Championship, because of the fears he would be too much of a liability. A gun-wielding Romanian fan threatens a player A 30-year old soccer fan from Buzau, Romania, entered Politechnica Iasi dressing room after the game against the local Gloria team had ended in a 1-1 draw. "A guy in a leather jacket came in brandishing a gun and threatened our player Cristea," said the visitors' coach Ionut Popa. It was even worse outside, on the pitch. "I had never witnessed anything like it. All players joined in fighting, even the reserves. Our masseur was attacked and I had stones, lighters and bottles thrown at me. I think I might quit soccer," added Popa. The armed fan, a Gloria fan, was identified thanks to the video cameras and was swiftly fined and banned for life from approaching the stadium in Buzau, said the local police spokesman Ciprian Ene. Next week Gloria will be in for some more controversy because they play away at leaders Cluj. Steaua chairman Gigi Becali has promised each Gloria player 5000 euros if they can snatch a point or three off Cluj, who are eight points ahead of the Bucharest team. Uche's goal "silliest" in Spain, Neville's own goal tops world competition Getafe's goal which condemned Real Madrid to a 0-1 defeat last week was voted the silliest in Spanish soccer history in a poll organized by Marca daily. The readers gave 40% of the vote to the goal by Uche, who took advantage of Real players' celebration of a goal which had been disallowed. While the home players were hugging near the touchline, unaware that the linesman's flag had gone up, Getafe staged a fast break culminated by the Nigerian. Incidentally, the second most-voted goal was also conceded by Real Madrid. Back in 2001, Valladolid's Colombian Harold Lozano whistled and froze Real's defense, who must have believed that the whistle had come from the referee. Then Lozano passed the ball to Fernando, who easily scored past the petrified keeper. In international competition, the most votes went to Gary Neville who scored an own goal in the Croatia vs England game (2-0), beating the goalkeeper Paul Robinson with the help of a divot, which changed the trajectory of the ball. Arrest warrant issued for Serb FA president Serb police have issued an arrest warrant for FA president Zvezdan Terzic, over suspicion of embezzling 1.1 million Deutchmarks from the transfer of Vanja Grubac to Hamburger SV of Germany. The suspected crime took place in 1998 while Terzic was OFK Beograd's director. "It has been determined that Terzic misappropriated 1.1 million DEM relative to the transfer of a soccer player," announced the police spokesman, according to Tanjug agency. Terzic, who is allegedly in the United States, immediately reacted in an interview to Belgrade Sport daily, denying any wrongdoing. Even the player in question stepped up in Terzic's defence claiming that, as far as he knew, the official did not take any money in the deal. This year Serb soccer came under an offensive from the legal authorities, who detained several high-profile officials, including the current FA director Dragan Dzajic, one of the biggest soccer legends in the whole of the Balkan peninsula. The accusations are always the same: misappropriation of funds from soccer transfers and tax evasion. Boca's people decided: Riquelme more important than Maradona Midfielder Juan Román Riquelme has been voted the biggest idol in the history of Boca Juniors in a survey conducted on the club's web page. Out of 65,200 voting supporters, 33.7% gave their vote to Riquelme, while the former crowd favourite Maradona collected 26.42%. Third place went to Guillermo Barros Schelotto of Columbus Crew with 21.36%, while Manchester United's Carlos Tévez won just 4.5% votes, behind Martín Palermo in fifth place. The popular choice should not be too surprising since Riquelme did much more for Boca than Maradona in his two relatively brief spells. "I'm happy Boca's people loves me, but this club is over 100 years old and there are far more idols than those mentioned in the poll. Some of them are not among us any more. The fans must have remembered more easily those who are still here," said Riquelme with commendable modesty. The international midfielder helped Boca win three Argentinian championships, three Libertadores Cups and an Intercontinental Cup. Symbolically, he was the player who substituted Maradona during his farewell game in 1997 and in 2002 he transferred from Boca to Barcelona, just like El Diego 21 years earlier. In Europe, he was best remembered for missing a penalty in the 2006 Champions League semifinals for Villarreal against Arsenal. Fraud uncovered: Franco's propaganda doctored famous Marcelino's goal The Spanish national team won the European Championship in 1964 beating the Soviet Union 2-1 with goals from Pereda and Marcelino. Up until now, the average Spaniard believed that it was Real Madrid's Amaro Amancio who provided the cross for the decisive Marcelino goal. That was, in fact, what the tv footage showed. However, Spanish national tv has now revealed the swindle: dictator Franco's news and propaganda agency had edited the footage to hide the real maker of the cross: Barcelona's Jesús Pereda! It seemed to the generalísimo's assistants that it would be inappropriate for no Real Madrid players to have participated in the decisive plays so they decided that it was Amancio rather than Pereda who passed the ball to Marcelino. At least they did not change the scorers themselves. Copyright Ozren Podnar & Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

World Soccer News: for week of January 20th Maradona invited to a Holocaust museum Diego Armando Maradona has been invited to a Holocaust museum in Buenos Aires to learn of Nazi atrocities. The invitation has been extended by the head of the Argentinian Jewish community Aldo Donzis, due to Maradona's repeated praise of Iran and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for his denial of the Holocaust and calls for the destruction of Israel. "We do not mind Maradona's support of the Iranian people, because the Jews are not against the Iranians. We object to his sympathies for Ahmadinejad, who is not an ordinary person," said Donzis in his invitation to the famous player. The Argentinian government has long suspected the Iranian leaders of having orchestrated in 1994 a slaughter of 85 local Jews in Buenos Aires and protecting the perpetrators. Maradona said he would like to meet the Iranian president, in his opinion the third "giant" of today's politics, alongside Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. He even sent a replica of his number 10 national team shirt to Ahmadinejad by diplomatic mail. Zlatan reaches a hundred... Inter's Zlatan Ibrahimovic has completed his first century of League goals. With two hits against Sienna he raised his tally to 49 in Italy alone, after having scored 16 times for Malmő Ff, 35 for Ajax and 23 for Juventus. In the past 18 months in Inter the Swede of Bosnian and Croatian origins has been going at 0.6 goals per game, having netted 26 times in 43 appearances. ...Totti a hundred more While taking Roma to the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup, Francesco Totti performed an extraordinary feat. With two goals in his team's 4-0 win over Torino, Totti reached 200 goals in all competitive games for Roma. "Scoring the 200th goal was one of my dreams and I wanted to realize it at this stadium, my stadium," said Totti, whose next objective is to become the most capped Roma player of all time. With 386 appearances, the legendary defender Giacomo Losi is just four games ahead of Il Capitano. Going strong at 31, Totti is allowed to glimpse another milestone: "I hope to score my 300th goal before I retire." Since he plans to play until the summer of 2012, this particular goal is not beyond his reach. * Since his debut in 1993, Totti has scored 161 goal in Serie A, 17 in the Italian Cup and Supercup and 22 in the European Cups. His best season was 2006/07 with 32 goals on all fronts. Iker Casillas plans to be Real's chairman Real Madrid's Iker Casillas, currently the world's top goalkeeper, is looking far into the future. Although only 26, he already has it clear he would like to be his club's chairman, perhaps in 20 years' time. "My dream is to be Real Madrid's chairman, in which case I would try to bring back Santiago Bernabeu's old style," said Iker, not concerned what the current club's boss Ramón Calderón will think may be wrong with his own style of governing. Still, Casillas does not intend to take over just yet. First he's going to coach. "I'd like to be like Camacho, Del Bosque or Irureta. I'll work with youth players, then with seniors. All of this will not happen so soon. I believe I'll be good in goal until I'm 35, maybe even 38. I hope to play at Real Madrid until the end, I don't want to move." Cukaricki's coach orders his players to sing There's going be music in Cukaricki Belgrade's dressing rooms. The coach Dragoslav Stepanovic has come up with a brilliant idea for improving his players' mood: they're going to sing at the end of every practice or game. The former Yugoslav international and Eintracht Frankfurt's coach considers the boys too serious and obedient, even though they are performing decently on the pitch (all-time best fourth in the League). "When the spring season starts, my players will have a special daily task. Football must be enjoyed and a good atmosphere is essential for success," said Stepanovic to Kurir daily. The Serb has apparently been inspired by José Mourinho, who requested of each new player to perform before his teammates for bonding purposes. In Cukaricki they'll all sing. "I'm fed up with coming to the dressing rooms and finding the guys silent, with their heads down. The player I select will have to mount a chair in the center of the room and sing something of his choice. Let them choose what they will, but I'd prefer Serb folk music. First they'll be a bit shy, but later on they'll beg me to perform." Munúa to be tried for punching Aouate The Spanish District Attorney has instituted criminal proceedings against the Uruguayan goalkeeper Gustavo Munúa for punching in the face and injuring Dudu Aouate, his colleague at Deportivo La Coruna. Although the Israeli, who received eight stitches for a cut on his left cheek, did not press charges personally, the Attorney is prosecuting Munúa ex officio. The South American snapped simply because Aouate had expressed his surprise at having been relegated to the bench in Munúa's favour. On the other hand, Deportivo's coach Miguel Angel Lotina has also reacted unreasonably by suspending indefinitely both the aggressor and his victim. Copyright: Soccerphile & Ozren Podnar Last week's world soccer news Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football Betting

04/24/2007 Croatian FA to demand 3.5 million € from UEFA over loss of Euro 2012 Croatian FA chairman Vlatko Markovic says his organization will demand 2.5 to 3.5 million Euros in damages from UEFA after the joint Croatia/Hungary bid was rejected as host to stage the 2012 European championships. "We'll ask between 2.5 and 3.5 million because all of our projects were suspended during the campaign to organize Euro 2012," Markovic told the Jutarnji list daily. Markovic, who spoke to UEFA's chairman Michel Platini in Nyon over the issue, believes Croatia and Hungary were deceived in the Executive Committe's final vote last Wednesday that was won by Ukraine and Poland.