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Home , Diego Maradona, Nicolas Leoz

Saturday Vision, September 7, 2013 34 World Cup qualifi ers

DIEGORomario (left) and raised issues about transparency in South AmericanIS football management AT WAR

iego Maradona and Roma- rio have joined forces to World Cup qualifying attack the South American zone Football Confederation Tuesday (CONMEBOL), saying it v Ecuador Dhas failed to share the wealth gener- Uruguay v ated by the sport in the region. Venezuela v Peru Former captain Diego v Argentina Maradona and ex- striker Ro- Colombia v Chile mario, now a member of his country’s October fi xtures congress, are long-standing critics Ecuador v Uruguay of the football establishment in the Venezuela v Paraguay region. Argentina v Peru The pair met with 20 South Ameri- Chile v Ecuador can clubs and a group of Uruguayan Peru v Bolivia lawyers to demand change in the way Paraguay v Colombia football is administered. “We have seen, with astonishment “We have to get more people to- and great sadness, that football is for gether. The clubs, the ex-players and just a few,” Maradona told reporters the current players have to take the after a meeting of the group in Sao fi ght to CONMEBOL. It’s a movement Paulo on Wednesday night. for transparency and dignity in football. “It doesn’t belong to the clubs, the “With this commission that we are supporters or the players. So we are going to form, we are going to see what going to form a commission to unmask has happened to all this money.” these people who do so much harm to Nicolas Leoz, a former FIFA executive the game. committee member, quit as CONME- “It’s very serious, but thanks to all of BOL president at the age of 84 in April, us who are not afraid of those people citing ill-health. One week later, a ... we are here so that we can have a report by FIFA’s ethics commission said more transparent football,” he added. that he had taken bribes for ISL, FIFA’s Romario described CONMEBOL former marketing partner which went as worse than the Brazilian Football bankrupt in 2001. Confederation (CBF), which he has He was replaced by his vice-presi- frequently criticised. dent, 81-year-old Eugenio Figueredo of “The situation is really much more Uruguay. serious than we imagined,” he said. CONMEBOL spokesman Nestor “What has been presented here is one Benitez said he had no comment on of the biggest disgraces that I have the accusations. seen. I couldn’t imagine that there was “Everyone has the right to their opin- an institution which ... did so much ion, football is generous and is an open harm to the sport. fi eld for all opinions,” he said. (left) will be in action on Tuesday; Maradona (main picture) was up in arms