A battery of photographers will have their lenses trained on the Hampden Park technical area awaiting the gesture that would signify the end of a simmering, 22-year-old hostility.
A battery of photographers will have their lenses trained on the Hampden Park technical area awaiting the gesture that would signify the end of a simmering, 22-year-old hostility.
They need not hold their breath. Will Terry Butcher shake the Hand of God? Yesterday, the former England captain conveyed the impression he would rather join Amy MacDonald for a rendition of Flower of Scotland. "It is not something I have thought about and not something I care about," he said yesterday, having adroitly bobbed and weaved his way around the reunion since Diego Maradona's unexpected appointment as Argentina's national coach.
Time has hardly healed the wounds of Maradona's iconic assault on England's World Cup hopes in 1986. Yet, while many of Bobby Robson's side have forgotten, if never forgiven, Maradona's poetic punch past Peter Shilton, Butcher has retained a bitterness so profound the incident could conceivably have happened yesterday.
Why the laboured grudge? Bad enough that Butcher was within close proximity to the Argentine's moment of graceful pugilism but the centre-back has also had to live with the memory - and endless television replays - of being beaten twice on Maradona's mesmerising mazy run that many believe to be the greatest individual goal in football history. Sharing a doping station with the felon, drunk with euphoria and celebrating wildly, inside the Azteca Stadium was the final straw.
"I would pay thousands to be in that drugs room again," he reminisced, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white. "I couldn't speak Argentine and he couldn't speak English so I just pointed to my hand and my head to find out what he used. He pointed to his head. Maybe he realised it was the smart thing to do with three English players - me, Kenny Sansom and Gary Stevens - in the room."
Ironically, Butcher did not know what the fuss was about until after the game, even though he was at the head of the queue to berate the Tunisian officials.
"At the time, not many of us were sure what had happened," he said. "Peter Shilton went out of his penalty area to remonstrate with the referee along with Glenn Hoddle, and I just followed in the hope of getting the goal chalked off, even though I didn't know what for at the time."
Butcher's contempt is, on the face of it, borne out of the Corinthian ideal of sporting integrity and gentlemanly conduct. He also considered 1986 as England's best chance to win the World Cup, 20 years after their solitary triumph. More prosaically, he doesn't care much for Maradona's type.
He may have delivered an apology to the English via a cosy television interview with Gary Lineker but Butcher is in no mood to offer forgiveness. "No, I will never forgive him because it is not nice to lose a game in those circumstances," he said sharply.
He rejected the notion his hatred is pathological. "I am not that sad," he said. "I don't have a Diego doll that I kick or stick pins in. I just do not want to speak to him. The attitude he had after the game - not admitting to cheating - I don't have time for people like that."
Butcher was compelling company yesterday. At times he could not help himself from delivering a barb in Maradona's direction, such as referring to the more rounded 48-year-old figure as the "Body of God". At other times he produced priceless anecdotes. "I saw Steve Hodge recently and blamed him," he said during a lighter moment. "He kicked the ball over his own head and that allowed him to do it."
There was a reluctant admiration of Maradona's marvel. "The second was an exceptional goal: I would have to grudgingly admit that and say it is one of the best goals ever scored at a World Cup," he said. "He is the best player I played against but not the best player ever," Butcher said pointedly. "That was Pele. Having said that, Pele had a great team around him in 1970 but Maradona single-handedly - no pun intended - won the World Cup for Argentina in 1986. He was a phenomenal talent and had a real magnetic personality that attracts people towards him."
Their paths last crossed shortly after the World Cup, when Butcher played in a Rest of the World Select against the Americas. "I have not seen him since, and even then I only saw the back of his head," said Butcher.
They will be within touching distance tomorrow. The talking will stop and Scotland, who have taken second billing behind Maradonamania, will come to the fore. "I have tried to bat away the England and Maradona thing but you can't escape it," said Butcher. Not in the sanctuary of the dressing room and not when the Tartan Army come out in force for a glimpse at the player who illuminated Hampden Park shortly before taking the acclaim of the world stage in 1979.
"I think there will be 40,000 people rubbing it into me because the Tartan Army love Maradona for that goal," said Butcher. "It will certainly be interesting. I don't have strong feelings for Argentina and I think that came across when I chatted with the boys today. It went alright until James McFadden piped up We quite like Maradona'."
The appointment may have taken Butcher by surprise but a look at the disparate state of the Argentine squad, comprised of predominantly European-based players and struggling in fourth place in their World Cup qualification group, heightened the appeal of Maradona despite a calamitous and lapsed coaching career.
"I was surprised when I first heard but you can see the logic: Argentina are fourth in their qualifying section and not playing particularly well," he said. "They need somebody to unite the whole country. It would be like Denis Law or Kenny Dalglish taking over Scotland.
"This game has become a huge event of global interest and all the focus will be on Argentina. It is important that Scotland do not become second fiddle. It is like a Premier League team preparing to face one of the big four in England. You do not want to get smashed but equally you rise to the challenge and hopefully play above yourself. I don't think there is any need to go in feeling inferior."
