Tunisian referee Bennacer: Maradona is a genius ... and the "goal of the hand" questioned him

Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser remembers every move made by the late Argentine "genius", Diego Maradona, in his country's match with England in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Mexico 1986, which he supervised and witnessed his scoring a historic goal in his hand, which contributed to his country's victory to the second most beautiful "masterpiece" in the history of the Cup. the world.

After a joint game between Maradona and Jorge Valdano, the latter raised the ball inside the area to the first who broke the offside trap.

The British strongly protested the goal, but Bennasser did not reverse his decision and asserted its legitimacy.

"I did not see the handball, but I suspected that," said Bennacer, who became the first Tunisian referee to run a match at this level.

"You can see the scenes. I backed down to take the opinion of my assistant, the Bulgarian Duchev, and when he confirmed the target, I counted it," he told AFP.

Bennacer was subjected to racist criticism at the time after calculating the goal, but he made his decision "in compliance with all the instructions of the International Federation."

"I had managed a match between the Soviet Union and China in 1985. I was the man of difficult tasks for FIFA and ready for these kinds of matches," he added.

Bin Nasser was assisted in the match by referees from "neutral" countries. To Duchev, who died in 2017, there were two referees from Costa Rica and Mali.

Bin Nasser, 76, who continued in the world of professional arbitration until 1991, added, "FIFA gave us clear instructions that even if we are the best in our countries, we must take the advice of a colleague who is in the best position."

Maradona admitted after the match that he used his hand to score, considering it "the hand of God," he said.

Ben Nasser continued, "FIFA gave me a score of 9.4 (on 10) in this match, and I did what was necessary, but there was confusion. Duchev said later that he saw two arms, and he did not know if they were for Shelton or Maradona.

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