Diego Maradona, Terry Butcher and the Art of Forgiveness

Forgive your brothers and sisters and you will set yourself free. This advice from above has clearly remained unheard by Terry Butcher, the England defender left reeling after Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ propelled the ball into the England goal on that fateful day in the World Cup finals in Mexico back in 1986. Butcher was on the plane home the next day, carrying with him a grudge against the mighty Argentinean which endures to the present day.

Maradona is now the Argentina national coach and is visiting Glasgow’s Hampden Park for a friendly with the Scottish team this coming Wednesday. Fellow football betting fans will note that he has never acknowledged the foul he committed to win the match in question and this is obviously the source of Butcher’s antagonism towards him. Butcher has said that he will be unable to shake hands with Maradona should the occasion arise.

Forgiveness is a tricky thing that often seems an impossible feat. How can you forgive someone who has not conceded their wrongdoing and grovelled for the forgiveness you find so hard to offer? And yet, by harbouring a grudge, we surely leave a fire smouldering within which affects our lives in everything we do. Some sports writers have forgiven Maradona on the grounds that the game is jammed full of cheats and he is no exception. This is a cop-out and does not serve the game well. There are plenty of upstanding players who do not cheat. The way forward for Butcher is to observe the forces underlying Maradona’s offence – the weakness of character within the man and forgive him for that.

That doesn’t mean he has to shake his hand.