Video: When Maradona was king I Maradona, a slum and the birth of a legend I Diego returns to Hampden I A genius to rank alongside Pelé I Butcher feels injustice 22 years on I Welcome to the Maradona circus I Maradona lifted by chain reaction

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 1986, but Diego Maradona was fortunate yesterday that there were 25 miles between himself and Terry Butcher. Argentina’s football God may have been in his Glasgow hotel next to the River Clyde thinking only of the future, but not even the idyllic setting of Loch Lomond could stop Butcher from being consumed by the past.

The former England captain and his nemesis will meet once again at Hampden Park tomorrow night, 22 years after that moment in the Azteca Stadium. Butcher does not intend to seek out Maradona for a handshake. The deep injustice of what the little Argentinian did in the World Cup quarter-final on June 22, 1986 burns as fiercely as the Mexican sun did that notorious day. Football, though, possesses a touch of irony that few businesses can match.

Who would ever have expected Butcher, the quintessential Englishman, to be involved with the Scotland side? Who would have expected Maradona to be manager of any side at all, after a huge absence from the game and his battle with drug addiction? To put them together in the same arena for Maradona’s first match in charge of Argentina? Well, the beautiful game must be having a laugh.

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This may be his adopted country now, but Butcher once loathed the Scots. Or did, until the Hand of God redirected his venom. As Butcher raked over the events of Mexico City in the Scotland team hotel at Loch Lomond yesterday, he found it hard to forgive Maradona for taking the low road to glory all those years ago.

The pair will be separated by just a few yards of track at Hampden in tomorrow’s friendly, but the man who won 77 caps for England before switching international identity to become George Burley’s assistant for Scotland is not interested in a peace offering.

“I would not want to speak to him about it,” Butcher said. “I have to share a technical area with him but that is it as far as I’m concerned.”

Does he think about him often? “I’m not that sad,” Butcher said. “I don’t have a Maradona doll at home that I stick pins in. Although, maybe I should get one. I can never forgive him for what he did. It was probably the best chance England had of winning the World Cup since 1966.”

Butcher admitted yesterday that he was not aware of Maradona’s duplicity at the time, when the Argentinian used his left hand to deflect Jorge Valdano’s cross beyond Peter Shilton in the 51st minute of a taut quarter-final. Even though Maradona scored a sublime second goal five minutes later, Butcher believes that even greatness is no excuse for cheating.

What made him even angrier after the 2-1 defeat was that Maradona refused to admit to his crime when he and Butcher were in a room undergoing the post-match Fifa drug test. “He came in and he’d been celebrating in their dressing-room,” Butcher recalled. “I was there with Gary Stevens and Kenny Sansom. We were gutted because our World Cup was over. Maradona was the last person we wanted to see.

“It was all I could do not to hit him. He just smiled at us and held his hands out and shrugged. That irritated me more. If he had come in and said he’s used his hand, maybe I would have just wanted to hit him four times instead of 20.

“Ironically, after the tournament ended, I was chosen for a World XI against the Americas Select in Pasadena and Maradona was on the other team. I actually scored, thanks to a cross from Gordon Strachan. We ended up giving away a 2-0 lead and drew 2-2 and lost on penalties. Maradona was haunting me that summer. People think I have a real hang-up about Maradona but I have never met him since that day. I could not recognise him in a crowd.

“I actually blame Steve Hodge for the whole thing. If he had booted the ball out of the pitch like he was supposed to, there would be no Hand of God. I saw him the other night and wanted to strangle him. I never saw Maradona go up and handle the ball. Once it was in the net, Peter Shilton and Glenn Hoddle were running past me but I thought they were just trying to put the ref under pressure.

“I think if Fifa saw that sort of thing now, they would ban him for cheating. The problem is, the referee has to see it and the ref didn’t that day. I don’t think that sort of thing would happen in football today with the television coverage it has. The Fifa officials would see it before the game was over.

“That was our best chance of winning the World Cup in 40 years. When John Barnes came on, it changed the game and we had Argentina on the rack for the last 20 minutes. That is the way we should have played for the whole game, with that sort of adventure, and that’s the biggest regret. We had really picked up form towards the end of the group when Gary Lineker scored a hat-trick against Poland and then we knocked out Paraguay. We were confident of beating Argentina. We thought 1986 could have been our year.”

Not everyone empathised with Butcher. The former England captain joined Rangers from Ipswich Town and found that Maradona was pretty much a hero in Scotland for toppling the Auld Enemy.

“When I came to Rangers, I never heard the end of Maradona,” Butcher said with a smile. “I saw more Argentinian shirts that year in Scotland than I did out in Mexico. Everyone who saw me — not the Rangers fans, obviously — when I was out, would shout ‘Argentina!’

“On Sunday night I told the Scotland players when we had a meeting that I did not like Argentina too much — James McFadden then stood up and said, ‘well we actually love Argentina’. They have been taking the mickey. I don’t think anyone wants to beat Argentina more than I do.”

Love him or loathe Maradona, Butcher feels that Argentina’s surprise appointment of their tarnished idol is not a foolish move. “There is a lot of logic in that choice even if he does not have a lot of coaching experience,” Butcher said. “They are fourth in the World Cup qualifying group and have good players, but they need someone to lift the country — he is that man.

“It’s like Denis Law or Kenny Dalglish being put in charge of Scotland. Or Bobby Moore managing England. If you have that sort of player in charge of your country, it is a great honour for all the players he selects. His players will be thinking ‘Maradona has picked me for Argentina’. That could really work against Scotland because their players will be trying to prove to Maradona that they can be part of the future under him.

“Maradona is magnetic. He attracts people towards him. Some times it is the wrong ones. But only special people have that sort of aura. Maradona was the best player that I played against but Pelé was the best player that I ever saw. That has nothing to do with what Maradona did with his life after 1986 but Pelé was a wonderful ambassador for football.

“They were both exceptional players but it’s Pelé first and Maradona second for me. Pelé had a big influence on Brazil but he had world-class players alongside him. In 1986, Maradona won it single-handedly for Argentina.” Would victory for Scotland tomorrow, spoiling Maradona’s return to the big stage, at least offer Butcher a form of personal revenge? “I will never get revenge for that — those days are gone,” he said. “I’m not bothered about what Maradona does now. I am focused on Scotland.”