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Maradona expects pure sports with no politics during visit
Legendary soccer player turned coach Diego Armando Maradona has said that he wants to concentrate on sports during his visit to Indonesia and does not want to get involved with political issues
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L
egendary soccer player turned coach Diego Armando Maradona has said that he wants to concentrate on sports during his visit to Indonesia and does not want to get involved with political issues.
"I want to say that politics should not be mixed with soccer," Maradona said during gala dinner on Saturday night as reported by Antara news portal.
Maradona, who arrived at Soekarno-Hatta international airport Saturday morning (June 29) initially wished to visit Jakarta, Surabaya (East Java), Makassar (South Sulawesi) and Medan (North Sumatra) for coaching clinic activities.
However, he cancelled his visit to Makassar upon hearing that his activities there would be 'hijacked' by a political event.
It was also reported that the Argentine coach had cancelled another visit to Medan. Commenting on this, Maradona said he had not yet decided whether or not he would cancel his Medan visit.
"But it is not my last visit to Indonesia. I want to come here again to make everything beautiful. I want to visit Bali and other tourist destinations," he said.
Maradona had earlier planned to hold a coaching clinic for Indonesian youth at Bung Karno stadium in Senayan, Jakarta, but did not go through with it allegedly due to security reasons.(hrl/dic)
