Maradona calls out FIFA over ban on high-altitude matches

By Grahame L. Jones, Times Staff Writer

Five things happening around the world:

1Finally, Diego Armando Maradona has done something useful for the sport without using his hands.

Argentina’s 1986 World Cup winner has lambasted FIFA in general and its president, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, in particular for the ban imposed on playing international matches at high altitude.

After playing in an hourlong charity game in front of more than 25,000 fans at Hernando Siles Stadium in La Paz, 11,800 feet above sea level – a game that also featured Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president – Maradona on Monday lashed out at world soccer’s leaders.

“I, at the age of 47, and President Morales have shown FIFA that you can run on this pitch,” he said. “All of us have to play where we were born. Not even God can ban that, and certainly not Blatter.

“The measure is ridiculous. It’s disgraceful. It was approved by people who have never chased a football. It’s political.”

In Zurich last week, FIFA upheld its prohibition on international matches being played above 9,000 feet, effectively banning such cities as Quito in Ecuador and La Paz in Bolivia from staging games.

2Chile has decided to ignore FIFA’s ban and has said it would go ahead and play Bolivia in a World Cup qualifying match in La Paz on June 14.

Meanwhile, Copa Libertadores matches still are being scheduled for high-altitude venues because FIFA’s ban applies only to FIFA events and is merely a recommendation for other tournaments.

That brought an angry response from Emerson Leao, coach of Brazil’s Santos. “So they mean to say that it’s prohibited for a national team player to play up there, but club players are allowed to?” he said in Rio de Janeiro.

3Officials at MLS headquarters in New York are playing it coy but it’s no secret which team will provide the opposition at the annual All-Star game, scheduled for July 24 in Toronto.

That team will be England’s Thames Ironworks FC, founded by shipyard workers in 1895 and more commonly known by the name it adopted in 1900: West Ham United.

West Ham, once home to 1966 World Cup winners Bobby Moore and Martin Peters, now features such recognized internationals as Sweden’s Freddy Ljungberg, Peru’s Nolberto Solano and Wales’ Craig Bellamy, not to mention American defender Jonathan Spector.

Spector, incidentally, has joined the U.S. team for Thursday’s winner-take-all semifinal against Canada in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Nashville.

West Ham, meanwhile, is currently in 10th place in the English Premier League. The Hammers are known for their stylish play, but that could be put to the test on Toronto FC’s unpopular and uncompromising artificial surface.

4One of those watching Panama play in the first round of Olympic qualifying in Tampa, Fla., was Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, who told ESPN Deportes that he once was a pretty good player himself as a fast and physical forward.

5Galaxy fans, some of whom might fondly remember the last time they had a championship team to support, tonight can see the player who brought them that title when the Houston Dynamo plays Municipal of Guatemala in a CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal second-leg game in Texas.

Playing for Municipal these days is Guillermo “Pando” Ramirez, who memorably – not to say astonishingly – scored only once in 24 regular-season games for the Galaxy in 2005 and then notched the winning goal against the New England Revolution in the MLS Cup final.

Houston tied Municipal, 0-0, in Guatemala City last week and is favored to advance tonight, Ramirez notwithstanding.

Incidentally, only five players from that 2005 MLS championship Galaxy team are still playing for Los Angeles: Landon Donovan, Pete Vagenas, Steve Cronin, Alan Gordon and Troy Roberts.

grahame.jones@latimes.com