22 years on, scots assistant and ex-england defender still hasn’t forgiven maradona’s cheating
Butcher wouldn’t join a queue to shake the ‘Hand of God’
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Diego Maradona will receive a hero’s welcome at Hampden tomorrow – but there is one man in the Scotland camp who will not be going out of his way to shake the “Hand of God”.
Scotland assistant manager Terry Butcher will never forgive Maradona for his infamous handball goal against England in Mexico in 1986 as England were eliminated and Argentina went on to win the trophy.
Butcher was on the receiving end of football’s most famous piece of cheating and, although Maradona went on to score again with one of the best goals the game has seen, the former England defender is in no mood to let bygones be bygones before tomorrow’s friendly international.
Butcher said: “I have not got a Maradona doll at home with pins in it – I am not that sad. But I will never forgive him because it was not nice to lose in those circumstances.
“It was perhaps our only chance of winning the World Cup after 1966. We had a good opportunity. John Barnes came on towards the end and we had them on the rack for the last 15 minutes.
“That was how we should have played for the whole game. It is a regret we did not. But it is not nice when you exit a World Cup like that.
“We had beaten Paraguay in the previous round and had some momentum and thought this could be our year.
“Maradona came into the drugs-testing room and celebrated. Our World Cup was over and we wanted to quickly give our samples and get out of there. He came in and he was the last person we wanted to see.
“He did not speak English and I did not speak Spanish, but when I asked him whether he had used the head or the hand he pointed to his head. Maybe that was because it was a small room and he feared us because there were three Englishmen and we weren’t very happy.
“He probably took the safe option, but that irritated me even more. If he had come in and said ‘It was my hand and I apologise’ then I would probably have hit him four or five times rather than the usual 20.
“Sometimes you shake the opposing coach’s hand. I’m not bothered about that. For me that’s not the focal point. The focal point is getting our players organised to play in the game.”
While Butcher will not forgive and forget, he insisted his main priority tomorrow night is not revenge, but helping Scotland produce a solid performance before next March’s important World Cup qualifier in Holland.
He added: “I am not concerned about what Maradona does, I am concerned about Scotland.
“This is an incredible event which has captured everyone’s imagination. We are a small part of it and that suits us.
“It is a nice quite build-up for us because the focus will be on them. We do not want to play a small part on Wednesday, though. It is a great game to play in, but we want to do well and we have our own agenda.
“When you are playing against the bigger sides you raise your game because you do not want to get humbled.
“It is like when teams play the big four down south or the Old Firm in Scotland. You play above yourself because you do not want to get smashed.
“The spotlight is on us at home and, although we have some players missing, we have to adapt with the players we have here.”
