Hand of God goal

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Image:Hand of God goal.jpgThe Hand of God goal (Spanish: Mano de Dios) was scored by Diego Maradona in the quarter-final match of the 1986 FIFA World Cup between England and Argentina, played on 22 June 1986 in Mexico City's Estadio Azteca. The legacy of this event perhaps best symbolizes the rivalry between the two football teams.

The long term rivalry between the two footballing nations can be traced back to the controversial sending off of Argentine captain Antonio Ubaldo Rattin in the England-Argentina match of the 1966 World Cup; Argentina were knocked out of the tournament while England went on to win the championship. In 1986, when England and Argentina met in the quarter-finals, tensions were running particularly high between the two countries, partly due to the Falklands War which took place only four years earlier.

Six minutes into the second half the score was 0-0. Maradona cut inside from the right flank and played a diagonal low pass to the edge of the area to team-mate Jorge Valdano and continued his run in the hope of a one-two movement. Valdano's return, however, was played slightly behind Maradona and reached England's Steve Hodge, the left-midfielder who had dropped back to defend.

Hodge tried to hook the ball clear but miscued the ball and it screwed off his foot and into the penalty area, towards Maradona who had continued his run. England goalkeeper Peter Shilton duly came out of his goal to punch the ball clear, with his considerable height (6'1" or 185cm) making him clear favourite to beat Maradona (5'6" or 168cm) to it. However, Maradona (who was not offside, because the ball was last touched by Hodge, an opponent) reached it first — with the outside of his left fist. The ball rolled into the back of the net and, to the amazement of the English players, the referee (Tunisian Ali Bin Nasser) allowed the goal.

The Argentines celebrated (video shows Maradona looking at the referee with the corner of his eye) while the England players protested to no avail. At the post-game press conference, Maradona exacerbated the controversy further by claiming the goal was scored "a little bit by the Hand of God, another bit by the head of Maradona". Video and photographic evidence clearly demonstrated that he lifted his forearm to reach the ball before Shilton; TV networks all over the world showed it time and again.

In his 2002 autobiography, Maradona did admit that the ball came off his hand:

Now I feel I am able to say what I couldn't then. At the time I called it "the hand of God". Bollocks was it the hand of God, it was the hand of Diego! And it felt a little bit like pickpocketing the English.

In 2005 he justified the goal as a response to the UK's victory in the Falklands War, 'Whoever robs a thief gets a 100-year pardon.' on his talk show La Noche del Diez (literally "The night of number 10", or also "Number 10 Live")

Later in the same match, Maradona scored another goal, regarded by many as the best goal in World Cup history, in which he eluded five English outfield players (Hoddle, Reid, Sansom, Butcher and Fenwick) as well as Shilton. In 2002, this goal was voted as the Goal of the Century. England would score once through Gary Lineker, and almost score again through the same player, but the disputed goal ultimately proved decisive, meaning England were knocked out of the competition. Argentina went on to win the World Cup.

For the next few days the English press referred to the incident as "The Hand of the Devil". Argus Software released a football simulation game for home computers entitled Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona. Maradona remained unpopular with the English press for many years and when he was later banned from football for cocaine use, the tabloid newspaper The Sun stated in a headline "Dirty Diego Gone For Good!".

After 1986, the next competitive meeting between the two sides was in the round of the last 16 of the 1998 World Cup. Argentina would emerge triumphant on penalties after the game ended 2-2. It was most famous for the dismissal of David Beckham after he tried to kick an Argentine player, and the emergence of 18-year-old striker Michael Owen who scored a goal later voted the second best of its kind in World Cup history after Maradona's Goal of the Century. The celebrations by the Argentine players after their victory upset the England squad even more. The Argentine squad gained further headlines during their loss in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands; Argentine star Ariel Ortega received a red card for headbutting Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

During the 2002 World Cup, the meeting between England and Argentina was one of the few times there had been so much attention given to a first round match. Commentators described the noon match as the "longest lunch break in history" as millions in England and throughout the world stopped their jobs and activities to watch the game on TV. England's 1-0 victory from David Beckham's penalty, especially as this contributed to Argentina's failure to qualify from the group, was seen in English quarters as part-revenge for Maradona's goal as well as the 1998 Cup. In England, Payback for the Hand of God goal was commemorated with T-shirts displaying the result and the phrase "Look no hands".

When Shilton released his own autobiography in 2004, the famous photo of the Hand Of God moment featured on the back cover. Hodge, meanwhile, escaped vilification in England for his error which led to the incident, and managed to swap shirts with Maradona after the game, which became a very prized memento afterwards. Strangely enough, Maradona himself says that the angle at which Shilton was coming out prevented him from actually seeing the play and that Shilton only started his protest following Peter Reid's claim, who is seen in TV footage with his hand raised even before the ball enters the net.

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In popular culture

Image:Hand of God Goal - Homer Simpson T-shirt - P2030009.JPG

In 1987, the year after the goal was scored, English band New Order released a song named "Touched by the Hand of God", which referenced the goal.
Following a 1997 chess match against the computer Deep Blue, which he felt had been tainted by human interference, world chess champion Garry Kasparov compared the match to the 1986 England—Argentina game, stating in a press conference that "Maradona called it the hand of God".

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