Diego Maradona wants to ‘fight Fifa mafia’ but will he run for presidency?

Diego Maradona has been an outspoken critic of Fifa but refused to confirm whether he would he would run for the presidency. Giampiero Sposito / Reuters

Argentine football great Diego Maradona said he wants to fight the “mafia” responsible for the corruption scandal that has rocked Fifa, but he stopped short of saying he wants to be the next president of global football’s governing body.

“I have to fight the mafia that still remains inside Fifa. I have to fight those who have for a long time stolen from inside Fifa,” Maradona told local television channel America.

Asked whether he would run for the Fifa presidency, the 54-year old replied ambiguously: “I really want to be in Fifa.”

In late May, federal prosecutors in New York indicted nine officials, most of whom held or had held Fifa positions, and five sports media and promotions executives in schemes involving $150 million (Dh551m) in bribes over a period of 24 years.

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Prosecutors said their investigation exposed complex money laundering schemes, millions of dollars in untaxed income and tens of millions of dollars in offshore accounts held by the football officials.

Maradona has launched scathing attacks on the ruling elite of Fifa, and in particular its head Sepp Blatter, who announced in June that he was quitting over the bribery scandal.

Blatter was not charged by US justice officials and denies any misconduct.

Maradona has long accused Blatter of running Fifa like a criminal organisation and expressed delight in seeing US authorities hitting several of Fifa’s top former and current officials with corruption charges.

He used to bemoan that his warnings were being ignored.

“Now in my favour, I am walking in step with the yanquis,” Maradona said in the interview, using Spanish-language slang for Americans.

“And these yanquis are serious.”

Maradona was one of football’s most gifted players and led Argentina to a World Cup victory in 1986. But his dazzling career was blighted in later years by controversy both on and off the football field.

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