Soccer
Maradona stands by rant
2009-10-16 19:43
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Buenos Aires - Argentina football coach Diego Maradona will not take back the rude comments he made to reporters earlier this week, after securing a place in the 2010 World Cup at the last minute.
"I will not take it back," he told Argentine sports TV channel TyC Sports on Friday.
However, he accepted criticism to some extent.
"I won't do it again, I won't repeat it," he said. "I apologise to my mother and to women around the world."
Hours earlier, he had said that his rude comments were the result of "a very great relief after a week with a lot of criticism."
"I don't have to apologise. (Reporters) looked anti-Argentinian, and I will not forgive them. They wanted Argentina to be left out of the World Cup," Maradona told radio Continental.
At the end of Wednesday's 1-0 win against Uruguay in Montevideo, the football legend Maradona lashed at reporters.
"I don't forget things: those who did not believe, those who did not believe - may the ladies excuse me - let them suck my dick," an angry Maradona said in a press conference in Montevideo.
"I am either white or black, I am never going to be grey in my life. You treated me like you treated me."