Overview
Few footballers attract conspiracy theories like Diego Armando Maradona. The Argentine genius was both idolised and embattled, and two episodes in particular — his expulsion from the 1994 World Cup and his death in 2020 — have generated lasting claims of conspiracy.
The 1994 Ban: "They Cut My Legs Off"
At the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Maradona, then 33 and in inspired form, was selected for a drug test after Argentina's win over Nigeria. He tested positive for a cocktail of stimulants including ephedrine and was thrown out of the tournament; Argentina, deflated, were soon eliminated.
Maradona insisted he had been set up. His famous lament — "me cortaron las piernas" ("they cut my legs off") — framed the ban as a targeted act by FIFA and the football establishment to be rid of a charismatic, uncontrollable figure who criticised the game's authorities. His camp attributed the positive result to an over-the-counter American supplement taken without intent to cheat. FIFA maintained the test was legitimate and the substances banned.
The 2020 Death
Maradona died on 25 November 2020 at the age of 60, from a heart attack, weeks after surgery for a brain bleed. His death was not treated as a closed case. Argentine prosecutors charged members of his medical team — including his neurosurgeon and psychiatrist — with culpable homicide, alleging that his care at home was grossly inadequate and that he was effectively abandoned in his final days. A long-awaited trial of the medical staff opened in 2025.
While the homicide case concerns alleged negligence rather than a plot, the circumstances — a national hero declining in questionable care, surrounded by a contested entourage — have fed darker speculation among fans about how and why he died.
Counterpoints
On the 1994 ban, no evidence of a frame-up was ever produced, and Maradona had a documented history of substance problems. On the 2020 death, the legal process treats the matter as potential medical negligence, with the accused denying wrongdoing; sweeping claims of a deliberate killing remain unsupported. What is not disputed is that Maradona's relationship with football's authorities was genuinely adversarial, which is part of why the conspiracy framing resonates so strongly.
Legacy
Maradona remains a figure around whom myth and suspicion gather as readily as adulation. The 1994 expulsion and the unresolved questions about his final days ensure that the conspiratorial reading of his life endures alongside the football.