Four decades have passed since Diego Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal knocked England out of the 1986 World Cup, but the wounds remain unhealed. This week, a coalition of retired British referees has called for FIFA to apply modern VAR technology to historic matches, arguing that the original offence constitutes a ‘material error’ that should be rectified in the record books. The proposal, which has gained traction among some pundits and fans, would see the goal formally expunged, altering the outcome of that quarter-final and perhaps the trajectory of football history.
From a financial perspective, the demand is a curious case of sunk cost fallacy writ large. The British economy has moved on, the Premier League is awash with overseas capital, and yet here we are, re-litigating a 40-year-old grievance. The real story is not the goal itself, but the opportunity cost of such introspection.
Every minute spent debating Maradona’s handball is a minute not spent addressing the structural inefficiencies in the FA’s governance or the Premier League’s ballooning wage bills. Inflation in footballers’ salaries has outpaced RPI for decades, and yet we obsess over a ghost. The referees’ demand is a classic example of moral hazard: if we can retrospectively correct historical injustices, where does it end?
Will we nullify England’s 1966 goal-line controversy? Will we issue lifetime bans for every unpunished tackle? The market for fairness is infinite, but the resources are finite.
Meanwhile, the real risk is capital flight from English football as investors grow weary of a sport that cannot distinguish between heritage and hysteria. The FA and FIFA should resist this impulse and focus on the bottom line: the game today. Maradona’s genius and folly are part of the asset’s value, not a liability to be hedged against.
Let the past be past, or we’ll need a VAR for every moment of history.
