Argentine Legend, Diego Maradona has expressed his support for the use of Video Assistant Referee (VAR), despite being a beneficiary of the lack of VAR with the famous “Hand Of God”.
56-year-old Maradona scored with his hand against England in the quarter final of the Mexico 1986 World cup, a game Argentina won 2-1 to progress to the semi final.
Speaking to FIFA.com, Maradona said: “Obviously I think about it whenever I show my support for the use of technology,”
“I thought about it and, sure, that goal wouldn’t have stood.”
8 – Diego Maradona has provided more assists in the World Cup (1966-2014) than any other player. Deity. #AskOpta @900Emile
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 8, 2014
Maradona continued: “I’ll tell you something else – at the 1990 World Cup I used my hand to clear the ball off the line against the Soviet Union,”
“We were lucky because the referee didn’t see it. You couldn’t use technology back then, but it’s a different story today.”
Maradona also noted how England became world cup champions in 1966 “with a shot that didn’t go over the line”, referring to Geoff Hurst’s controversial strike.
“England won the World Cup in ’66 with a shot that didn’t go over the line,”
“There have been lots of incidents where World Cup history would have been different if technology had been used. It’s time to change all that.” he concluded.
