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Argentina's number 10 shirt 'activated'
Argentina's plan to retire their number 10 shirt in tribute to former star Maradona firmly rejected by FIFA's executive committee.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 08:27 AM IST
Read Time:1 min
Seoul:
Argentina's plan to retire their number 10 shirt in tribute to former star Maradona was firmly rejected on Sunday by FIFA's executive committee. Earlier, FIFA secretary general Michel Zen-Ruffinen had announced that the World Cup organizing committee had been given special permission to withdraw the number 10, adding that Argentina's third goalkeeper Roberto Bonano will carry the number 24 shirt - the only 24 in the tournament. The other finalists are number 1-23. But FIFA president Sepp Blatter said such an agreement was against the rules of football's governing world body and that Argentina will be 1-23 like everyone else. "Perhaps we will be a little more flexible in the future but as we are only a few days to the kick-off to the 2002 World Cup, now is not the time. We have regulations and regulations have to be obeyed," said Blatter. He added that the president of the Argentine Football Association Julio Grondona, a FIFA vice president, had accepted the ruling, saying that "at times you have to know how to lose". (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
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