Italian police have seized earrings from Argentina’s football coach Diego Maradona. The jewellery, which is reportedly worth 4,000 euros, is intended to compensate for a 37 million euro debt in unpaid taxes dating from his tenure as a player in Naples.
The seizure took place after Italian fiscal police knocked on the door of Maradona’s room in the luxury hotel Palace de Merano. They interrupted the series of health treatments he had been undergoing in order to lose weight to seize the two earrings he wears in his left ear. The event took place just orders after minister Maurizio Fugatti had drawn attention to the debt which the current coach of the Argentine national football team owes to Italy. “How can Maradona just peacefully follow a course of slimming treatments in Merano without receiving a visit from a tax inspector ?” an incredulous Fugatti asked the Chamber of Italian Ministers.
The issue has been a high profile case for some time, after a series of appearances on Italian television provoked much controversy surrounding Maradona’s spending habits. Neither is this the first time that he has been called upon by the Italian fiscal authorities. Three years ago two Rolex watches worth an estimated 10,000 euros were taken from the football legend by Italian police during a visit to Naples. A judicial order had been issued instructing police to seize anything “within plain sight.”