THE ball used for Diego Maradona’s infamous Hand of God goal is set to earn the referee who allowed it £3MILLION at auction.
Maradona scored arguably the most controversial goal in football history at the 1986 World Cup against England when he punched the ball into the net after going up for a challenge with Peter Shilton.
The referee Ali Bin Nasser, who met with the late Maradona years later, and his linesman never saw the obvious handball that helped Argentina beat the Three Lions 2-1 and make it through to the semi-finals before winning the World Cup.
According to the Daily Mail, the match official is set to rake in the dosh over one of the most historic errors in football as the matchball of that game will go under the hammer in the UK next month.
The Tunisian is selling the ball with Graham Budd Auctions on November 16 with bids expected to come in at around £2.5m-£3m.
He claims he wants to share this big “part of international football history” and insists to this day that he didn’t see Maradona’s handball.
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Bin Nasser said: “This ball is part of international football history – it feels like the right time to be sharing it with the world. At Mexico ’86 I was among the 42 referees at the tournament.
“African referees didn’t get the same opportunities as those in Europe, so to be told by FIFA that I was chosen because I was among the best in the world was a huge honour and a career highlight.
“As for Maradona’s first goal I couldn’t see the incident clearly, the two players Shilton and Maradona were facing me from behind.
“As per FIFA’s instructions issued before the tournament I looked to my linesman for confirmation of the validity of the goal – he made his way back to the halfway line indicating he was satisfied that the goal should stand.
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“At the end of the match the England head coach Bobby Robson said to me, ‘You did a good job but the linesman was irresponsible’.”
That goal led to immense furore by England fans as well as players, such as Terry Butcher and Shilton, who are still seething to this day.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
