Former Australian football officials have angrily denied there was any deal to prevent drug testing before the country played Argentina in a 1993 World Cup qualifying play-off, reports said Friday.
Julio Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association, said this week that doping controls were deliberately overlooked so as to prevent Diego Maradona falling foul of a test.
Ian Holmes, who was Australian Soccer Federation (ASF) chief executive in 1993, said no deal to drop the controls was ever discussed with his side. The ASF was the forerunner of the current Football Federation Australia.
"I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is no way in the world that any approach was made to me, the board or the coaching staff - and they would have come straight to us - to make a deal on that issue," Holmes told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Quite frankly, we would never have agreed to that kind of an arrangement.
"On my son's life, I can swear we would not have been a party to such a thing. It's just wrong on every level."
Grondona, who is also a FIFA vice-president, was responding to a claim from former legend Maradona that the Argentinians had arranged to have drug testing procedures dropped so they could benefit from illegal substances.
"Why wasn't there any doping control during the match against Australia when there had been in all the (other) matches?" Maradona said in an interview with Argentinian television.
"What happened was that for the game against Australia, we were given a quick coffee. They put something in the coffee, and because of that, we ran more and shot straight at the goal."
But Grondona said the controls were dropped specifically for Maradona's own benefit, after the player was suspended from football for 15 months in 1991 for failing a drug test, for cocaine, in Italy.
"We didn't carry out the tests because he was coming out of a doping affair, and it was possible that he'd continued with some bad habits," Grondona said on Tuesday in Buenos Aires, calling Maradona's claims an "outrage".
Julio Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association, said this week that doping controls were deliberately overlooked so as to prevent Diego Maradona falling foul of a test.
Ian Holmes, who was Australian Soccer Federation (ASF) chief executive in 1993, said no deal to drop the controls was ever discussed with his side. The ASF was the forerunner of the current Football Federation Australia.
"I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is no way in the world that any approach was made to me, the board or the coaching staff - and they would have come straight to us - to make a deal on that issue," Holmes told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Quite frankly, we would never have agreed to that kind of an arrangement.
"On my son's life, I can swear we would not have been a party to such a thing. It's just wrong on every level."
Grondona, who is also a FIFA vice-president, was responding to a claim from former legend Maradona that the Argentinians had arranged to have drug testing procedures dropped so they could benefit from illegal substances.
"Why wasn't there any doping control during the match against Australia when there had been in all the (other) matches?" Maradona said in an interview with Argentinian television.
"What happened was that for the game against Australia, we were given a quick coffee. They put something in the coffee, and because of that, we ran more and shot straight at the goal."
But Grondona said the controls were dropped specifically for Maradona's own benefit, after the player was suspended from football for 15 months in 1991 for failing a drug test, for cocaine, in Italy.
"We didn't carry out the tests because he was coming out of a doping affair, and it was possible that he'd continued with some bad habits," Grondona said on Tuesday in Buenos Aires, calling Maradona's claims an "outrage".
