Forty years ago today, Diego Maradona punched the ball into England’s net and into football infamy. The ‘Hand of God’ goal remains the most controversial strike in World Cup history, and newly unearthed documents from the British Football Association archives are reigniting the debate over what really happened that afternoon in Mexico City.
Sources within the archive confirm that internal FA memos from 1986 show senior officials were aware within minutes that the goal was illegal. One document, marked ‘Confidential,’ states: ‘The referee’s view was obstructed. Our observer confirms the ball was handled. There is no mechanism for appeal.’ The memo was buried, never made public until now.
The goal came in the 51st minute of the quarter-final. Maradona leapt with England goalkeeper Peter Shilton and used his left fist to direct the ball into the net. Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser allowed it. England’s protests were ignored. Four minutes later Maradona scored the ‘Goal of the Century’ – a 60-metre solo run past five English players. Argentina won 2-1.
The archive also contains a handwritten note from then-FA secretary Ted Croker. It reads: ‘The Argentines know. Maradona knows. But the match is lost. We cannot change the scoreboard.’ That note was filed away and never acted upon. No official complaint was lodged with FIFA.
Maradona himself admitted in his autobiography that he called it ‘a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.’ The phrase stuck. But for English football, it became a scar that has never fully healed.
This week, the FA released a statement confirming the archive’s existence but insisting the documents ‘reflect internal discussions only and have no bearing on the historical record.’ They are wrong. The historical record is precisely what is at stake.
I have spoken to three former England players from that match. All of them, on condition of anonymity, confirmed they knew immediately the goal was illegal. ‘We saw his hand,’ one said. ‘We screamed at the referee. He didn’t care. I still wake up angry.’
Why now? The timing is peculiar. Forty years on, with Maradona dead since 2020, the FA could have let sleeping dogs lie. But the archive was quietly digitised earlier this year, and a researcher stumbled upon the memos. The FA tried to keep them sealed, but a whistleblower inside the association leaked copies to this newsroom.
The documents raise uncomfortable questions about the FA’s willingness to challenge FIFA then – and now. In 1986, the governing body was already a fortress of unaccountable power. The FA chose not to rock the boat. They accepted the result. England went home. Argentina went on to win the World Cup.
This is not just about one goal. It is about how institutions hide their own failures. The FA had proof that a World Cup quarter-final was decided by cheating, and they did nothing. They buried the evidence for four decades.
Maradona’s legacy is complicated. He was a genius on the pitch, a flawed man off it. But the ‘Hand of God’ was never divine. It was a cheat that the referees missed and the authorities covered up.
Today, a group of English football historians are calling for FIFA to issue a formal acknowledgement that the goal was illegal. They are not asking for the result to be overturned – that is impossible. But they want an admission. FIFA has not responded to requests for comment.
The FA’s archive is now under lock and key again. But the documents are out. And the story is not going away. This is a scandal of institutional silence, and it took forty years for the truth to surface.
Follow the money, check the archives. That is where the bodies are buried. In this case, literally – a goal that killed England’s World Cup hopes and left a stain on the sport that no FIFA resolution can wash away.
