Argentinian football boss denies Maradona doping allegations

By Cecilia Caminos May 24, 2011, 17:49 GMT

Buenos Aires - Julio Grondona, the head of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), denied accusations by Argentine football legend Diego Maradona that he had knowledge of players consuming banned substances.

Maradona in a television interview on the weekend said that Grondona, senior vice president of FIFA, knew that the national squad got some 'fast coffee' laced with a doping substance ahead of the second World Cup qualifier play-off against Australia in 1993. Maradona himself tested positive for ephedrine during the 1994 World Cup.

Grondona rejected the accusations Monday in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa.

'We never gave (the players) anything,' he said.

Grondona admitted his efforts to prevent any doping tests were aimed at preserving Maradona, since the playmaker had at that time just returned to playing following a lengthy ban after failing a drug test.

'Perhaps I was wrong, but I tried to have no doping test in the last match for fear that something might happen, because players were coming in from outside my country and you cannot know what they take and what they do not take,' he said.

Grondona said the lack of doping tests was agreed upon with Australia, and that the media knew about it too.

'One player has a cold a day before a match and you canot inject him with anything or give him anything that might disturb (the test) and make him test positive. That was the intention. They understood and we resolved to have no doping tests either in Buenos Aires or in Australia,' he said.

'That does not mean that we opened up the tie for players to take banned substances, which is what (Maradona) wants to imply,' Grondona said.

Maradona, who was recently named coach of Dubai club al-Wasl, has long had an acrimonious relationship with Grondona, which hit rock bottom in July after his dismissal from coaching the national squad after Argentina's poor performance at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

'They gave us a fast coffee,' Maradona told Argentine television. 'They put something in the coffee, and maybe you could run faster.'

'Do you know why there was no doping test in the tie Argentina-Australia either in Australia or in the River Plate stadium? Because otherwise Argentina would not have made it to the World Cup,' he added.

Grondona, who has led AFA for 32 years, staunchly denied the accusations.

'Do you really believe that?' he asked dpa.

Maradona said earlier he will go to court after Grondona hinted that he continued to be addicted to drugs. Maradona stresses that he has been clean for seven years.