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Football

05th Jul 2018

Fifa react strongly to Diego Maradona’s England rant

He claimed he had seen 'a theft' on Tuesday night

Reuben Pinder

El Diego can’t keep himself out of the headlines

FIFA have condemned Diego Maradona after his outrageous rant in which he blamed football’s governing body for handing England a win over Colombia in the World Cup round of 16.

After a game that was about 50% shithousery from both teams and 50% cagey passing, Maradona unleashed both barrels on the officials and FIFA for supposedly helping England win.

FIFA have since come back with a statement, which reads:

“FIFA strongly rebukes the criticism of the performance of the match officials which it considers to have been positive in a tough and highly emotional match.

“It also considers the additional comments and insinuations made as being entirely inappropriate and completely unfounded.

“At a time when FIFA is doing everything within its power to ensure principles of fair play, integrity and respect are at the forefront of this World Cup and how the organisation is now run, FIFA is extremely sorry to read such declarations from a player who has written the history of our game.”

England will now face Sweden in he quarter-finals on Saturday afternoon. They face a race against time to get key players who played 120 minutes against Colombia – Kane, Henderson, Walker – as fit as possible before England’s biggest game since 2006.