She may be right. "I'm doing this for my daughters who mean more than anything to me," Maradona said on Monday as he headed for Switzerland. "I'm told there's an 80 percent chance they will cure my addiction. I'll make up for the rest with grit and courage."

He hopes that, in a 12-day stay, the Swiss can do what Argentina has failed to do for him in years. He then plans to visit Cuba, his second home, to honor Olympic medalists there.

Typical Maradona. Quick fix (in this case quick cure) and then back on the road of sporting ambassador. I truly hope it works, for I have visions of Garrincha, a little Brazilian winger who once flew almost as high in public esteem as Maradona, and who fell all the way to a premature, alcoholic death. And I have been shown, by President Menem's concerned staff, places where previous Argentine soccer idols came full circle to suicidal ends.

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A CLUB, PARTICULARLY one so grand as Arsenal, ought not to be so vulnerable. Success is of course cyclical, and Arsenal, having been the omnipotent English team of the 1930s, and then successful again at the start of the 1970s and a winner of six major trophies in eight years under George Graham up to 1994, might simply have to take its turn on the wheel.

It is a bad time to fall off. Television money is flooding the upper echelons of Europe's leagues, a brash new business ethic (if ethic is the word) is propelling clubs into a high orbit. There is fear that those who fail to capitalize in the boom will go bust in the game of catch-up.

Arsenal, only fifth in the league in the year of transition from Graham to his successor Bruce Rioch, lost patience this week. Rioch clashed with David Dein, the Arsenal vice chairman, a man so ambitious for the club, so headstrong in his determination to lead, that he took over some of the duties of the manager.

There is movement behind the scenes that suggests that Dein is not the power at the club that he was. A year ago he possessed 23,816 shares compared to the 448 of Peter Hill-Wood, the Old Etonian, city financier chairman of the board.