Diego Maradona to FIFA: 'Enough of Your Lies'

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona welcomed the arrest of six FIFA executives by Swiss police in an interview with the Argentine radio la Red on Wednesday.

“Stop these shady businesses, stop lying to people, stop throwing a dinner to re-elect Blatter,” the Argentine soccer star said, referring to current FIFA head Sepp Blatter, who is seeking re-election. Blatter was not named in the indictment, but his re-election in 2011 is part of the U.S. corruption probe.

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a 47-count indictment charging 14 top soccer officials and sports marketters with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies. The accused are alleged to have participated in a 24-year scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in bribery over sponsorships and broadcasting rights, tournament location selection, and vote-buying during FIFA elections.

RELATED: 'Rampant, Systemic and Deep-Rooted' Corruption at FIFA

“Spend all that money in an African football field, that’s what I play in four world cups for, others played five… For what? So children can still keep believing in this sport, in a ball, because with 22 kids play with a ball,” said Maradonna.

He added that he found it quite unfair that FIFA could be a multibillionaire organization, while many soccer players did not earn mores than US$150.

“FIFA has no problem with taking money from people, from charging them more for a parking space, for a membership, with decided whether or not you drink alcohol inside the stadium… it all depends on what’s more convenient for the. FIFA hates football and transparency,” said Maradona. 

He added that he had been “fighting to death” for a very long time the irregularities of the FIFA, and expressed his satisfaction that his allegations were finally investigated. “They used to tell me I was crazy when I talked about the FIFA corrupted leaders,” for instance Julio Grondona – an Argentine soccer leader whdeceased since.

RELATED: Who Are the FIFA Officials Indicted on Corruption Charges?