THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Diego Maradona met Monday with the Argentine Football Association’s president, but neither said a public word about whether the legendary player will stay on as coach of the national team.
Maradona said before meeting AFA president Julio Grondona that he wants to keep coaching Argentina as long as he can keep his entire coaching staff, plus add some others.
"If they touch the kit man, if they touch the massage therapist, I’m out," Maradona said early Monday in an interview with America TV as he arrived at the Ezeiza airport from Venezuela.
But Grondona imposed his conditions as well during their meeting, which AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo characterized in an interview with TyC Sports as "cordial and deep."
Neither side immediately answered the question of the day in Argentina — whether Maradona will stay on as coach — ahead of a meeting Tuesday between Grondona and AFA’s executive committee, where Cherquis Bialo said the association president would describe in detail his talk with Maradona.
Maradona said the players support him and that he feels eager to keep coaching the national team despite Argentina’s humiliating 4-0 loss to Germany in the World Cup quarter-finals — but only if he can continue to lead the team in his unique way, without staff changes imposed by AFA.
Cherquis Bialo said Grondona’s own conditions included detailed contractual obligations involving people and job responsibilities, but didn’t specify further. He said the future of Maradona as coach of Argentina will depend on Grondona’s report and the "spirit" of the executive committee, which is made up of presidents of Argentina’s leading football clubs.
If the two sides come to terms, Maradona could renew his contract through the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Either way, one decision needs to be made quickly — Argentina has a Tuesday deadline for announcing its players for an Aug. 11 friendly match against Ireland.
Maradona, who captained Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title, spoke briefly to America TV upon arrival early Monday from Caracas, where he visited Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Asked if he had analysed the video of Argentina’s 4-0 loss to Germany in the World Cup quarter-finals, Maradona said: "I haven’t seen it and I won’t see it."
The team’s defeat left the nation so dismayed and disappointed that no official ceremonies were held to welcome the team back.
Argentina President Cristina Fernandez has publicly supported Maradona, and a legislator has proposed building a monument to honour him. But many Argentines want him out, blaming his lack of coaching experience for failing to make the most of a team that included many of the world’s best players, including Barcelona star Lionel Messi.