"You know in football, people are mad. Football makes people mad" says Sepp Blatter. And as you are going to find out, that diagnosis comes from a point of authority.

World in Motion: The Inside Story Of Italia '90 is a new book by journalist Simon Hart, which delves deep into the thesis that the tournament irrevocably changed football. Simon spoke to Balls about exactly that, and the full, 25-minute interview is available as a podcast:

The interview swerved down a delightful tangent when it came to one of the hundred-odd people interviewed for the book: erstwhile FIFA president, Sepp Blatter.

Blatter agreed to speak to Simon, and then proceeded to trumpet his own, post-90' legacy. Following a dreary competition, in which only two games were won by a side falling behind, Blatter wanted to thrust attacking football back to the top of the agenda, and set up a taskforce to do so. He also claims responsibility for introducing the backpass rule following an appalling UAE performance which featured 13 backpasses in the first half-hour.

One man deeply unimpressed with Blatter at the time was one Diego Maradona, who raved in the media of conspiracies against Argentina. The final was decided in controversial circumstances: Argentina had two players sent off while Germany's winning goal came from a dubious penalty awarded to Rudi Voeller.


"There was a black hand at work. It's a shame that I don't have the proof to name names, but a referee can't fail to see the penalty committed on Calderon and then give a penalty for Voeller's fall" said Maradona after the final.

When Simon raised these quotes with Blatter, the conversation took quite a turn. We're quoting here from our interview with the author.