GROUP B/Argentina v Sth Korea:It doesn't take an awful lot to set Argentina manager Diego Maradona off – one word seems to work all the time, Pele, writes EMMET MALONE

THE SEVEN foot high partitions used to cordon off the different areas of the cavernous tented press centres in South Africa are decorated with images from the history of African football. One is a wonderful portrait of Pele, included on the basis that when the Santos side he playing in toured Nigeria and Biafra in 1969 while a fierce civil war was raging the country, both sides declared a temporary truce so that troops could attend the games.

That the Brazilian is celebrated but he is not might just have been niggling at Argentina boss Maradona as he arrived at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria for yesterday’s pre-match press conference for today’s match against South Korea, but what really set the generally combustible 49-year-old off was a question on what his thoughts might be regarding Pele’s suggestion, made earlier this week, that he had taken his current job because he badly needed the cash.

“Pele,” should “go back to the museum,” he said, before swiftly moving on to Michel Platini, who is reported to have questioned the Argentine’s coaching abilities, and the French generally.

“Platini?” he sneered, “I’m not surprised, I’ve always had a very distant relationship with him, it’s always just hello and goodbye, nothing more than that. We all know how the French are, and Platini is French, and he believes he is better than the rest.

“I feel capable of passing on to the players what I experienced as a footballer,” he said. “I want to be (world) champion and I have Messi, backed by a great team. There is, he added, no other player in this tournament who comes “within 40 per cent” of Messi.

“Korea don’t have a Messi, they’re a very strong collective block, they’re fast, they have a good team,” continued the manager who will be without injured midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron for today’s game.

“They’re to be respected but we’re going out to win that match.”

A question about the relative lack of goals so far also prompted a lively reaction from the former national team captain with Maradona observing: “I’m not worried by the fact there aren’t many goals. I’m sure there will be goals, I’m sure the players will see to that. Of course in the first matches you are more careful, perhaps more careful than you should be.

“And of course there’s the ball. I don’t want to go into the ball again because everyone is talking about it, but it is important and it does play a part and I would ask Pele and Platini to go out there and play with the ball and take a closer look at it to see if it’s a good one or bad one, and to stop talking rubbish about me.”

The latest swipe at his old Brazilian foe comes after Pele had reacted to Maradona’s earlier hint that he had wrongly questioned the South Africans’ ability to stage this World Cup without major problems.

“I don’t understand a few things,” Pele said in reply. “When he did his first television programme (in 2005) in Argentina and needed some help I went to Buenos Aires, played football with him and helped him out. Then I tried to help out with some adverts – but either he was late or never showed up.”

“I know,” he continued mockingly, “he has remembered me now in South Africa. He must love me.”

Pele, didn’t leave it there, though. Having previously said that after seeing the way Dunga is treated by the national media, he would never want to manage his own national side, he remarked: “Maradona accepted the job as he needed work and needed the money. I saw how Argentina qualified with difficulty. But it is not Maradona’s fault; it is the fault of those who put him in charge.”

The pair’s feud has been raging for years and to judge by this week’s exchanges, the Brazilian is really starting to master the art of the retort. His currents efforts are certainly a considerable advance on those he made back in 2000, when the difficulties between the pair really heated following the publication of Maradona’s autobiography.

The Argentine had alleged that Pele had had a homosexual affair with a youth team coach at Santos. The Brazilian claimed Maradona was making “ludicrous accusations”.