The Argentine football legend said the governing body showed a 'lack of respect for the rules' after insisting on the tests.
Only two Italian players underwent tests after Costa Rica beat them 1-0 on Friday – shattering England's remaining hope of getting out of the group stages.
Maradona, 53, said: "If there were seven Costa Ricans, why weren't there seven Italians?
'This is new. But this is happening because it hurts a lot of people to see Costa Rica get through and that world champions don't get through, because then the sponsors don't pay the cash they promised.
'It's against the rules. Each team sends two to anti-doping. It happened to me, I suffered it, so I'm able to speak about the subject. But seven players, never.
'Taking seven Costa Ricans to doping shows a lack of respect to the players and to the rules.
'Costa Rica had an incredible qualification, they had three world champions in the group and they beat them with good football.
'They never hid, they always had the ball, they went out to play. They played without fear of looking for the goal.'
Maradona won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 but was sent home from the 1994 competition after testing positive for ephedrine. He also tested positive for cocaine in 1991 and was suspended from football for 15 months.
He made his comments on the Argentine TV show De Zurda.
Costa Rican newspapers named the seven players sent for drugs testing as Bryan Ruiz, Michael Barrantes, Keylor Navas, Celso Borges, Christian Bolanos, Marco Urena and Diego Calvo.
Newspaper El Dia said the tests showed that FIFA had doubts about the Costa Rican side after their victories over Uruguay and Italy.
Dailymail
No comments:
Post a Comment