Diego Maradona has finally publicly admitted his guilt about his "Hand of God" goal against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals in Mexico, which yet again consigned England to a premature exit from the World Cup, by confessing on TV for the first time that he aimed to push the ball into the net with his fist. He then went on to say that he has never regretted it, and that he deliberately planned the manoeuvre "from the start".

Speaking on his new TV show, the top-rated chat show "La Noche Del 10" (The Night of Ten), a reference the former Argentina captain's shirt number, he confessed that he did indeed score the first goal of the quarter-finals "with my left fist".

"I want to tell this to all Argentinian's, and to the world...why not?" he added, with no hint of remorse.

Breaking a silence of nearly 20 years, Maradona, who for the past 8 years has been riddled with drugs, namely his huge cocaine habit, and in and out of rehab more times than Betty Ford, has finally revealed what happened in one of the most controversial moments in footballing history.

Having seemingly scored the first goal (with his hand), and to maintain the lie, he wheeled round to his team mates, and started celebrating wildly, meanwhile all the England players were remonstrating with the referee, with Peter Shilton, the England keeper, being one of the first of the England players to start giving the hand-ball signal to the officials.

Maradona, later known as "El Gordo" (the fat one), then added, "When I saw the linesman was halfway down the pitch, I called on my team-mates to embrace me and make a big show of acclaiming the goal, to make sure it was confirmed. They were hanging back a bit timidly. They embraced me, but as if to say, 'we're robbing them'. But I told them, 'who robs a robber, is pardoned for a hundred years.' This was, of course, a reference to the Falklands war, which had occurred four years previously. "We knew that we were facing the English, and they'd done all sorts of things to us," he said.

Maradona then went on to score on of the greatest individual goals ever in a World Cup Finals. He scored Argentina's winning goal with an amazing, mazy run from his own half-line, splitting the flailing England defence apart, and scoring with a beautiful shot, past Shilton, to the far-post in the 2-1 win in the Azteca Stadium, Mexico City.

Gary Lineker headed in England's only goal in the 81st, from a lovely John Barnes assist, but that was a late consolation for Bobby Robson's team.

Maradona, who was hospitalized, and on the brink of a drug-induced death many times, described how England 'keeper Shilton later reproached him for the invalid goal.

He continued, "and I told him, 'yeah well, obviously I'm going to lose sleep over that. What do I care". Then, looking at the camera, as if saying directly at Shilton, he added, "Peter, you didn't see a thing. It was (Terry) Fenwick who told you that it was handball. He was the one who saw it, because he was behind me and saw everything", obviously not noticing, or thinking, with his jubilation, that Shilton was the first to notice, because, as any great goal-keeper would do, he kept his eye on the ball.

"I never regretted scoring that goal with my hand," he went on, "and what's more, I scored another one like it playing for Napoli against Udinese".

"Zico, (former Brazil captain), who was playing for them, asked me if I didn't feel it was wrong and I said absolutely no. I'd often done it before, when I was starting out."

Whether this will finally bring this issue to a close is a different matter, but the manner he chose to admit it may have some people scratching their heads as to whether it is just an elaborate self-promotion tactic, or is he just THAT arrogant?

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