The referee selling Maradona’s “Hand of God” ball for £3million yesterday blamed a linesman for missing the World Cup blunder.
Tunisian Ali bin Nasser, 78, awarded the Argentine legend the opening goal in his side’s 2-1 quarter final win over England at the 1986 Mexico contest.
But he claimed he never spotted Diego Maradona punching the ball over keeper Peter Shilton’s head himself and Bulgarian assistant referee Bogdan Dochev did not flag for it.
Bin Nasser added: “Mistakes happen. It is part of football.
“We are human beings and humans make mistakes.
“I had my back to the player. The instruction was that if you do not see the action, if the linesman can see it better, you take his judgement.
“I looked at the linesman, he was running back to the middle, he said to me the goal was good. That’s why I gave the goal. I finished the game very strong, and you would not do that as a referee if you were thinking that you had made a mistake.
“Obviously the camera showed that it was a handball. But again it was not my fault. I played my part, the linesman confirmed the goal.”
Bin Nasser old how he thought Maradona’s second, when he shimmied past half the England team, was “the goal of the century”. He added: “One of the England players [Terry Butcher] had his foot on Maradona’s foot and I was ready to give a penalty, but he scored.”
Gary Lineker, who scored England’s goal, has questioned how the referee ended up with the ball. He said: “I’m thrilled he’ll cash in on his cock-up.”
But Bin Nasser told how he was inspired to flog it by the £7.1million sale of Maradona’s shirt from the same game by former England player Steve Hodge earlier this year.
He added: “That helped me make the decision. The money is a reward for my career. I am going to do a lot of charity work and hopefully set up myself and my family for the rest of our lives.”
And in answer to Lineker’s criticism, bin Nasser said: “At the tournament, any referee got to keep the ball. I have one from the Portugal v Poland game.”
England legends Kenny Sansom, Butcher and Peter Reid were at Wembley yesterday to publicise the ball’s sale at Graham Budd Auctions two weeks today.
Reid said: “It was one of the most iconic games of all time. That’s why the ball is worth so much.”
Butcher insisted he did not foul on Maradona. But he said: “He single handedly won the World Cup… literally.
“It was heartbreaking for us, we were as deflated as the ball is now.”
