Those waiting for Diego Maradona to resign or be sacked after yet another dismal Argentina performance in the World Cup qualifiers forget that he is untouchable.

Maradona will press on blindly, brushing off criticism with remarks about having always fought adversity and come out on top.

The team he led to victory in the 1986 World Cup forged their solidarity in the them-and-us syndrome: Them being influential people in Buenos Aires, like then government Sports secretary Rodolfo O’Reilly, trying to get coach Carlos Bilardo ousted weeks before the tournament in Mexico when they looked a poor team.

Victory served to increase Maradona’s self-belief and aura of invincibility.

Maradona recalled on Wednesday night that Argentina were close to elimination in the qualifiers for the 1986 finals and that they had to play Australia in a playoff for the 1994 tournament.

He is the arch-survivor, from the time an uncle plucked him as a little boy out of a cesspit in the shantytown where he grew up to the several occasions when he cheated death by drugs or obesity after retiring as a player.

Whether or not he is a good coach, an astute leader of men, an inspiration to his players doesn’t come into it: Faith is the issue and “The Hand of God” claims to have plenty.

Maradona’s appointment last October appalled a lot of Argentines but just as many had faith that he could inspire the team like no-one else, touch Lionel Messi with his magic wand and transform Argentina.

Good results in friendlies in his early games in charge fuelled the faith and a 4-0 home win over Venezuela in his first qualifier in charge looked good — on paper.

Ultimately it did a lot of damage, because the team tried to play the same game more than 3,500 metres up in the rarefied air of La Paz and got pasted 6-1 by Bolivia.

There has been just one win in the four qualifiers since, 1-0 at home to Colombia who were unlucky not to get at least a draw.

In Maradona’s defence, the team played well away to Ecuador in their next away game at altitude, pacing themselves, but a penalty miss by Carlos Tevez denied them the halftime lead they deserved. They lost their legs in the final quarter of an hour and conceded two late goals to go down 2-0.

The Brazil and Paraguay defeats in the last six days followed, leaving Argentina in the playoff position.

Tevez’s Argentina form is symptomatic of the team’s ills. He is no longer the South American Tevez who inspired Boca Juniors and Corinthians to titles. He has moulded himself into the ultimate idol of the English fans’ and managers’ love of the work ethic. He always gave his all but he seems to have lost his ball touch.

Messi’s performances have merely highlighted the superb job Pep Guardiola does at Barcelona where the Argentine wonder kid responds brilliantly to a tune dictated by Xavi and Iniesta.

Argentines want to see the Barcelona Messi playing for their country but there is no strong team structure for him to shine in and he can’t carry the team like Maradona did at a similar age.

The Argentina team became Maradona’s baby as a captain. It is no different as a coach, only he lacks the ability from the touchline to carry the team to victory that he had as a player.

Critics have said they hope Maradona fails and Argentina don’t go to the finals in South Africa so the team can make a new start. A process that brought Argentina five of their record six World Youth Cups in the last decade and a half and produced a team who were favourites to win the senior title in 2002 and met Brazil in the 2004 and 2007 Copa America finals has hit the buffers.

Maradona believes only he can save them.

PHOTO: Diego Maradona sits on the bench during Argentina’s defeat by Paraguay in Asuncion, Sept. 9, 2009. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Mexican clubs have stormed out of the South American Libertadores Cup after a row over the H1N1 flu outbreak and the national side will no longer take part at the Copa America.

“The game is over for us,” said Justino Compean, president of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF).

Mexican authorities threw their toys out of the pram after Brazilian champions Sao Paulo and Uruguay’s Nacional declined to travel to the country to face Guadalajara and San Luis respectively in the Libertadores Cup second round.

Yet, the weekend’s league matches in both Guadalajara and San Luis were played behind closed doors under the orders of the FMF itself because both are considered to be in regions where there is thought to be a higher risk of the virus.

Given the circumstances, it seemed premature, to say the least, to claim that either city would make an appropriate venue for an international sporting fixture.

Some commentators, notably David Faitelson writing for the Mexican edition of ESPN’s Web site, have questioned whether any football at all should be played in Mexico in the present circumstances. (more…)

It is becoming a familiar trend in Argentine domestic football. The home team is winning by a single goal, the clock is ticking….and suddenly all the balls have disappeared and visiting players have to go searching for them.

The latest incident happened on Sunday during River’s match at home to lowly Gimnasia-Jujuy. One of the ball boys took his time in returning the ball to visiting goalkeeper Gaston Pezzutti, who angrily hurled it at the youth and was sent off.

It was a four-edged punishment for Gimnasia, who had to bring on a substitute keeper, reshuffle their team, play with a man down and lose precious seconds.

No action, however, was taken against River apart from the dismissal of the ball boy.

A similar controversy blew up earlier this month in the derby between Gimnasia-La Plata (the first division has two clubs whose full names are Gimnasia y Esgrima, one from La Plata and one from the northern city of Jujuy) and Estudiantes.

With Gimnasia 1-0 ahead in the second half, the balls mysteriously went missing. The referee added on six minutes of injury-time, Estudiantes equalised with the last kick of the game and Gimnasia even had the cheek to protest about the amount of time added on.

Ball boys are currently supplied by the home teams and are often apprentice professionals, as was the case at River on Sunday.

The idea of neutral ball boys has been discussed. Some say the fourth official should make sure there are enough balls and others have suggested that ball boys who are sent off should be suspended from youth level matches.

But, with nearly one coach losing his job a week in the first division alone, the demand for success in Argentina is so high that teams are almost certain to think up even more cunning ways of gaining an advantage if the current practice is stamped out.

Mexico’s recent tribulations — four coaches in the last three years, two defeats to Honduras in five months, an even more humiliating loss in Jamaica — have left many supporters with a certain nostalgia for former coach Ricardo La Volpe.

Gruff and outspoken, La Volpe brought almost unprecedented stability between 2002 and 2006 as he actually completed the four-year cycle between World Cups. He made Mexico one of the world’s most tactically versatile teams, boldly drafted in numerous young players and enjoyed competitive wins over both Brazil and Argentina.

Now coach of Mexican club Atlas, La Volpe is still producing the goods and has taken the unfashionable side on an impressive nine-match unbeaten run which has included a 1-0 win away to their more powerful neighbours Guadalajara.

Yet, not for the first time, La Volpe has threatened to undo his good work on the field with his comments off it. Tact is not his strong point, as he proved once again with a stunning public attack on his squad.

“We don’t have any players who can tip the balance of a match,” he complained, adding that if the players did not understand his tactics — a criticism which has been levelled at him in the past — then they should leave. (more…)

Even before this week’s outburst and his decision to quit Argentina for the second time in three years, Juan Roman Riquelme’s future with the national team had looked uncertain.

Riquelme missed their first two matches under Diego Maradona because of club commitments and, without him in midfield, Argentina shook off the apparent lethargy which had marked their last few displays under Alfio Basile.

There is much to admire about Riquelme’s play. His elegant, languid style is a refreshing sight in the modern game, with its emphasis on speed and strength, and sadly he appears to belong to a dying breed.

But too often his temperament lets him down. Many feel he is over-sensitive to criticism and it took only a innocuous comment from Maradona in a television last week to dent his pride.

“We don’t think the same way,” said Riquelme with an expression resembling a sad puppy whose favourite bone has just been taken away.

“We don’t share the same codes of ethics. While he is the coach of the national team, we can’t work together.”

“Sometimes, it seems like I’m a disaster and can’t make a single pass,” he added, referring to criticism of his recent performances with Boca Juniors.

Claudio Mauri, a columnist in the daily newspaper La Nacion, wrote: “Riquelme showed that his pride makes no concessions, not even to Maradona and everything that his figure respresents.”

Under Basile, Riquelme had everything he wanted. The team was built around him and he was ever-present in Argentina’s first eight World Cup qualifiers, no matter how he played.

Although Maradona had also pencilled in Riquelme as his playmaker, it was clear the 30-year old would no longer enjoy the same influence.

There has been widespread speculation that Riquelme had fallen out of favour with senior members of the squad with some versions talk of an incident with Lionel Messi during the Copa America in Venezuela.

Maradona would certainly have risked disrupting his team if he had introduced Riquelme into the mix in the World Cup qualifier against Venezuela later this month.

He also has a reputation for underperforming on the big occasions.

Will Argentina do better without him?

PHOTO: A combination of file pictures shows Argentina’s national soccer team coach Diego Maradona (L) and playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme. Riquelme announced he was quitting Argentina’s national squad due to differences with the team’s coach, Diego Maradona, during a TV interview. REUTERS/Staff/Files

This is the final instalment in our look at the peculiarities of Latin American championships, after an introduction, a tour through Peru, and on to Uruguay and Mexico. 

And so to Ecuador.

With three stages, bonus points and a two-leg final, Ecuador’s championship is a brave attempt to keep as many teams in with a chance of winning the title for as long as possible. In fact, getting knocked out takes some doing.

In the first stage, the 12 teams play each other twice and the top four qualify for the third (repeat third) stage. They also carry through bonus points — three for the winners, two for the second-placed side and one for the third-placed side.

If a team happens to finish bottom of the first stage, there’s no need to fret because there’s still the second stage to come.

This time, teams are divided into two groups of six and the top two in each also qualify for the third stage (joining the four teams from the first stage). Should one of these four teams have also finished in the top four of the first stage, the next-best team will also go through. One bonus point is awarded for the winner of each group.

The bottom two teams over the first two stages combined are relegated.

Meanwhile, the lucky eight who reached the third stage are divided into two groups of four and the winners of each group meet in a two-leg final.

There are several drawbacks to this system. A team which qualifies for the third stage in the first stage will have little to play for in the second stage, apart from one measly bonus point. And it’s quite possible for the eighth-best team over the first two stages to win the title.

As with Peru, it does avoid the possibility of one team running away with the tournament, though.

PHOTO: Deportivo Quito’s Oswaldo Ibarra celebrates after his team scored against Universitario de Deportes during their Copa Sudamericana soccer match in Quito August 5, 2008. REUTERS/Guillermo Granja

This is the fourth instalment in our look at the wacky world of Latin American championships having started with an introduction and then analysed Peru’s interesting league system and moved on to Uruguay.  

Today, we’ve reached Mexico and it’s a goody.

Mexico has some of the finest stadiums in Latin America and pays some of the highest wages. It is also notable for having a system in which the championship’s best team repeatedly fails to win the title.

Like several countries, Mexico holds two championships per season, the Apertura and Clausura. There is no overall champion.

Each championships consists of a qualifying stage follow by a knockout stage, known as the Liguilla.

In the qualifying stage, the 18 teams play each other once — but are curiously divided into three groups. The top two teams in each group qualify for the quarter-finals while the two best teams from the remainder, regardless of group, also go through.

There are two major drawbacks: some groups often turn out to be much stronger than others and it is possible for a team to finish bottom of their group and have more points than the leaders of a different group; it is also common for the best team in the qualifying stage to then get unceremoniously dumped out in the quarter-finals.

Of the last five champions, only Pachuca also had the best overall record in the qualifying stage.

To complicate matters further, relegation is decided over three full seasons — which means six championships. This makes it theoretically possible for a team to win the championship and get relegated at the same time.

Tigres UANL came close to achieving this unique feat. They were relegated in 1996 and also qualified for the play offs, but lost to Necaxa in the quarter-finals.

PHOTO: Toluca’s Carlos Esquivel looks surprised during a Mexican League match against Tigres at the Universitario stadium in Monterrey November 8, 2008. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo

This is the third instalment in our look at the wacky world of Latin American championships having started with an introduction and then analysed Peru’s interesting league system.

The Uruguayan championship is also a strange beast, short on crowds but big on maths. It is divided into two stages, the Apertura and Clausura, but also features another table, called the Anual, which consists of the standings for the two stages combined (in other words, a conventional league table).

At the end of the season, the winners of the Apertura and Clausura meet in a semi-final which is played over two legs. In an inspired move, the winners of this game then play off against the winners of the “Anual” in a final, also over two legs. (This may well make it the only championship in the world to have one semi-final).

You do not need to be wearing a big anorak to work out that there’s a fair chance than the same team could win both the Anual and either the Apertura or Clausura as well. What happens in that case? Here goes…..

Let’s say that Team A has won the Apertura and the Anual and that Team B has won just the Clausura. Team A and Team B will still meet in the semi-finals but if Team A win, they would win the title automatically (the alternative would be playing against themselves in the final).

However, if Team B win the semi-final, they face Team A (this time in the guise of Anual champions) again in the final.

If the semi-final ends in an aggregate draw, a replay is played. And if the final also ends in a draw, another replay is played. That means Team A and B could meet six times.

In fact, they could even meet a seventh time. Should Team B and Team A have finished level on points at the end of the Clausura, a play off would have been held to side decide that as well…..

Next up in the series: Mexico.

For more blogs on other sports than soccer, check out http://blogs.reuters.com/sport

Peru’s new system, introduced after the league increased the number of teams from 12 to 16, is particularly curious.

The “Decentralised” championship, as it is known, begins with the 16 teams playing each other twice in the conventional style. For most people, with matches being played from the jungle of Iquitos to the dizzy heights of the central Andes, that would be enough. But the Peruvian league has decided to follow this up with a sort of playoff system.

The difference with this playoff is that everybody qualifies: the teams which finish in odd positions (first, third, fifth etc) go into one group while those finishing in an even position will go into another. (Fortunately, the teams carry through their points total to the group stage, otherwise the initial phase would have been merely an academic exercise).

The winners of each group then meet in an end-of-season final. Apparently, the motive for the change was the wish to have a final and to stop a team running away with the title with several rounds of matches to spare.

The downside is that a team could find themselves having to play a two-leg final against opponents who accumulated far fewer points over the regular season.

Nolberto Solano has just returned home after 12 years playing abroad in Argentina, Greece and England. He must be wondering what has hit him.

Next time we’ll look at Uruguay.

For more blogs on other sports than soccer, check out http://blogs.reuters.com/sport

The season is under way around Latin America which means various countries have had a chance to roll out new-look (or not so new) domestic championships.

As usual, it feels like there is a contest going on to devise the oddest format for a football tournament. Over the next few days, the Reuters soccer blog will present the various candidates for this year’s award for the strangest concept.

The conventional league system — where the teams play each other twice and the one with the most points wins the title — is simply too orthodox for most South America countries which instead use Byzantine formulas.

Where else can a team have the chance to win the title and get relegated at the same time or find themselves playing the same opponents up to seven times in a row at the end of the season?

At present, only Brazil operates the conventional league system — but even here, the domestic season is cluttered by a profusion of regional championships (one for each of the country’s 27 states) in which the first division sides also take part and a nationwide Copa Brasil which sends teams on 15-hour journeys across three time zones to play semi-professional opposition.

Before writing off the region as eccentric, though, be warned that the recent tendency has been for Europe to follow Latin America and make its tournaments more complex (look at the UEFA Cup) rather than vice-versa.

The Libertadores Cup had two clubs per country — often selected by dubious criteria — long before the Champions League, its European equivalent, opened its doors to second, third and fourth-placed teams.

Colombia also began squeezing an extra round of “derby” matches into its championship years before the Premier League even talked about its proposal for a39th game.

It is not hard to imagine certain Premier League clubs casting an envious eye over the relegation system used in Argentina and now copied in several other countries.

Here relegation is decided over three seasons by dividing the number of points won by each team by the number of games played. It was introduced in the 1980s specifically to reduce the possibility of the big clubs going down as the chances of them having three bad seasons in a row are almost negligible.

Next we’ll look at Peru’s wacky system.

For more blogs on other sports than soccer, check out http://blogs.reuters.com/sport

PHOTO: San Lorenzo’s Gonzalo Bergessio celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal against Tigre during their playoff match in Buenos Aires, Dec. 17. REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian