A former World Cup referee is going to make roughly $5 million off of his biggest oversight.
The Tunisian referee who oversaw the match and missed football’s most infamous handball has placed up for auction the ball used when Diego Maradona scored his infamous “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup.
This morning, Graham Budd Auctions announced that they anticipate the 36-year-old Adidas ball held by former referee Ali Bin Nasser will bring in between $4. 8 million and $5 million NZD.
On November 16, four days before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, it will be put up for sale in Britain. The asking price is $85 million.
The ball auction coincides with a surge in sports collectibles.
The legendary Maradona’s shirt from the World Cup match against England in Mexico was sold for $16.5 million in May, setting a record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of sports memorabilia at the time. A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card, which sold for $22.3 million in New York in August, outperformed that.
Last month, a Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals—the season depicted in the ESPN and Netflix documentary “The Last Dance”—fetched $17.9 million at auction, exceeding auctioneers’ expectations and breaking the record for game-worn memorabilia previously held by Diego Maradona’s shirt.
According to auction house chairman Graham Budd, “2022 has been a spectacular year in the sports memorabilia market with records smashed on three occasions.”
“The market is experiencing exciting times, and we wonder if this famous football will set further records.”
The Maradona goal, which gave Argentina a 1-0 lead over England in the quarterfinals but shouldn’t have been permitted, has gone down in football lore.
Maradona leapt as though he was going to head the ball, but he punched it past Peter Shilton. Despite the protests of the England players, Bin Nasser upheld the goal.
Its famous name comes from Maradona’s comment that it was scored “a bit with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.”
Four minutes later, Maradona scored another outstanding goal with the identical ball—the only one used in the quarterfinal. He evaded half of the England players while running 68 metres from his own half before sneaking the ball past Shilton to make it 2-0. That goal was voted the World Cup Goal of the Century in 2002.
The event established Maradona as one of the greatest players in the history of the game as Argentina defeated the opposition 2-1 to win the World Cup. At the age of 60, he passed away in 2020.
Bin Nasser declared in a statement that “this ball is a part of world football history.” “It seems like the proper time to tell the world about it.
Additionally, according to the auction house, Bin Nasser will auction the referee shirt he wore for the quarterfinal as well as another garment that Maradona inscribed with the words “forever buddy” at a get-together years after the match.
After purchasing the Mantle card for $50,000 in 1991 and maintaining it in pristine condition, the seller was rewarded for a cunning bit of business.
A million dollars is about to be made for Bin Nasser thanks to one of the worst calls in World Cup history.
World Cup ball from Maradona’s “Hand of God” will be used by referee
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