“Diego Maradona Ruined My Life……”

“Diego Maradona Ruined My Life……”
Asim Deb, 1977 Electronics & Tele-Communication Engineering

Bogdan Dotchev was Bulgaria’s top FIFA referee during 1970s and 1980s and officiated a few matches of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. “Diego Maradona ruined my life”, says Bogdan Dotchev, the assistant referee who failed to act against Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal.

On remembering the 1986 World Cup match of Argentina vs. England, the Bulgarian assistant referee Bogdan Dotchev said later: “Diego Maradona ruined my life. He is a brilliant footballer but a small man. He is low in height and as a person.”

The world and England had already been in such controversy before. During extra time in the 1966 World Cup final between England and West Germany at Wembley the referee from Switzerland, Gottfried Dienst, was not sure if the ball had crossed the line from Geoff Hurst’s shot. Therefore, Dienst passed the responsibility for the decision to his linesman Tofiq Bahramov. Despite not being able to see the situation clearly the assistant gave a goal, which happened to be the vital third in England’s 4-2 win. Dienst confessed later that he and Bahramov didn’t speak in any common language leaving them no choice but to communicate non-verbally.

That was exactly the case 20 years later in the 1986 World Cup with Bin Nasser and Dotchev. The Tunisian was fluent in French and English whereas his colleague from Bulgaria was in German and Spanish. After the game between England and Argentina they spoke in the dressing room only through a translator, who was engaged by FIFA, but by then FIFA already declared that Argentina was the winner. Bin Nasser explained it many years later and then came Dotchev’s counterattack. “Although I felt immediately there was something irregular, (but) back in that time FIFA didn’t allow the assistants to discuss the decisions with the referee. If FIFA had put a referee from Europe in charge of such an important game, the first goal of Maradona would have been disallowed,” Dotchev told the Bulgarian media. And so, henceforth the war of words began.

In the 51st minute, Maradona began a trademark jinking, weaving run inside the England half, before laying the ball off towards Jorge Valdano on the edge of England’s 18-yard box, with Steve Hodge in close attendance. What looked like a horribly sliced clearance from Hodge, but what he insists was in fact a calculated back-pass, was lofted back into the area. As Peter Shilton came off his line to gather, the diminutive Maradona leapt for the ball too, raising his left arm above his head and directing it beyond the goalkeeper and into the unguarded net. English Central defender Terry Butcher insisted the match officials should have spotted what actually happened. English player Butcher admitted: “I honestly never saw him handle it. It was a brilliant piece of gamesmanship. I blame the assistants for not seeing that. I think it was pretty clear. I think in a World Cup quarter final that is an utter disgrace, that he’s been allowed to get away with that.”

A FIFA documentary was published on 1st January 2024, where English Striker Gary Lineker, whose 81st-minute goal in the last-eight meeting helped him claim the Golden Boot told The Hand of God, a FIFA+ documentary: “I don’t have rage in me. I just felt gutted. Absolutely gutted. “I like Diego, I have to confess. He cheated us, but I’ve forgiven him. Maradona was the greatest player of our era. The things he did on the pitch were magical.”

On that day, the 22nd of June 1986, the destiny of at least two people changed forever. The two men, whose fate could not have been the same ever since, on that fateful day dressed in black Ali Bin Nasser from Tunisia, the referee, and Bogdan Dotchev from Bulgaria, one of his assistants. That day was the last time they spoke to each other, ironically the last time they looked themselves in the eyes was in the 51st minute, when Maradona put Argentina in front with a goal the whole football world still calls the “Hand of God”. Soon after the game in Mexico City the Tunisian found a peculiar excuse by citing a hemorrhoid treatment that, apparently, affected his sight. According to the other assistant referee of the game, Berny Ulloa from Costa Rica, Bin Nasser was “really sad” after seeing the TV replays at the hotel.

TV images showed that referee Bin Nasser running slowly backwards towards the center of the pitch and looking at his assistant Dotchev (whose immediate reaction was to stand absolutely still), while Maradona was celebrating the controversial goal with his team-mates. The glances Bin Nasser and Dotchev exchanged in that moment must have been full of hesitation, confusion and … expectation. Even if the referee and his assistant hadn’t been fully aware of the handball, they certainly knew something was wrong. At least that was what the protests of England’s players suggested. Yet a lack of review from both the officials became their only action and so the “Hand of GOD” goal goes into record book.

Bin Nasser explained “I was waiting for Dotchev to give me a hint of what exactly has happened but he didn’t signal for a handball.” He continues “the instructions FIFA gave us before the game was clear – if a colleague was in a better position than mine, I should respect his view.” …… “An expectation not me but the other should take the responsibility for the final decision no matter what it actually was.”
Neither Bin Nasser, nor Bogdan Dotchev later officiated any more World Cup matches, although Dotchev soon reached the age limit for an international referee and had to retire. For a decade after that match, both Nasser and Dotchev refused to comment on the moment which ruined their international refereeing careers, as if they were comrades from the same battlefield who had made a pact of silence.

“Never mind the reaction of the foreign media, the biggest insults I received back then were from Bulgarians. Some even called me a national traitor,” Dotchev said with bitterness. Discussing the incident with the Bulgarian media, he said: “Although I felt immediately there was something irregular, back in that time FIFA didn’t allow the assistants to discuss the decisions with the referee.” He also added “If FIFA had put a referee from Europe in charge of such an important game the first goal of Maradona would have been disallowed.”

Off the field the lives of Dotchev and Bin Nasser couldn’t have been more different. While the Bulgarian had a degree in finance, the Tunisian worked as an engineer.

38 years have passed since the Hand of God goal but the feud between Bin Nasser and Dotchev is not over. In his most recent interview the Tunisian once again put the all of the blame on the linesman. “My assistant did not raise his flag. Moreover, for three years, at the end of every year, he would write me a little note that always said the same thing: ‘My brother, my colleague, there was only the hand of Shelton.’ After that he stopped writing. He had to revise his view of the goal,” Bin Nasser said.

As you might expect, Dotchev’s view is slightly different. “Bin Nasser was just not prepared well enough to referee such an important game,” he said. “And how could he be? After all he used to be in charge of some games between camels in the desert.”

Played out in the aftermath of the 1982 Falklands conflict, the media were keen to attribute a greater diplomatic and political meaning to the fixture – but it was a narrative which those involved were not buying into. Maradona, interviewed before the game, told a crowd of reporters: “No, no, no. It’s only football.” Maradona thought of the two officials who unknowingly helped him score one of his most famous goals? In some interviews Maradona calls them “my amigos”. Still there was no warm reception for Dotchev in his native Bulgaria. Instead of staying involved in football he preferred to avoid the city and started a new life in a small village. They say that time heals all wounds but between these two the debate still rages as it did in the immediate aftermath.

Goal of The Century:

Argentina’s Diego Maradona, in blue jersey, is about to score his second goal against England, during their World Cup quarter final football match, in Mexico City, Mexico on June 22, 1986. England’s Terry Butcher, left, tries to tackle Maradona, while England’s goalkeeper Peter Shilton is on the ground. Argentina won the match 2-1. (AP Photo/File).

English central defender Terry Butcher, who had a no-nonsense pre-match plan for quelling Argentina’s most effective attacking talent, said: “We thought if we could stop Maradona, then we could win the game. I think the consensus was that the only way we’re going to stop him is to try and kick him, but that’s easier said than done.”

*** (Source: FIFA, BBC, The Sun, The Guardian)

https://www.fifa.com/en/articles/diego-maradona-argentina-england-hand-of-god-1986
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40124552
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/3703546/linesman-from-infamous-england-v-argentina-1986-world-cup-quarter-final-confesses-from-beyond-the-grave-that-he-saw-maradona-punch-the-ball/
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/dec/10/diego-maradona-hand-of-god-referees-feud