Diego Maradona is Napoli, and Napoli is a huge part of Diego Maradona. It is one of the greatest marriages in soccer history. Maradona came to Naples in 1984 and until his suspension for cocaine use in 1991 totally revolutionized Italian soccer and Naples.
In his seven years at Napoli, Maradona won two Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia, one Italian Super Cup, and the UEFA Cup now known as the Europa League. El Diego scored 115 goals in 259 appearances for the club and was a Napoli player when he won the World Cup in 1986.
Upon his passing in November of 2020, Napoli commissioned commemoration kits with the face of Maradona as a sign of respect to the player the club unanimously states as the greatest player in Napoli’s history. Napoli have sported and sold the kits for well over a year but now Maradona’s family want to put an end to that.
Why Maradona’s family want Napoli to remove Diego Maradona’s face from kits?
The reason boils down to money, as the Maradona family have gone to the Italian authorities for the club to cease using Diego Maradona’s likeness. Said authorities have granted the family’s wishes and Napoli must stop selling or using jerseys with Maradona’s likeness.
Diego Maradona with Napoli (Retro Stars)
Napoli has generated 1 million euros in jersey sales, but no funds were ever shared with the Maradona family or next of kin.
“The ruling of the Court of Naples refers to a relationship between the administrator of the heirs of Maradona and Stefano Ceci with his company. Napoli has no relation to the matter. The dispute is between them,” said the club’s lawyer, Mattia Grassani, on CalcioNapoli24 TV.
Stefano Ceci was an Italian business partner of Diego Maradona who held the rights to use Maradona’s image, according to Clarin, Ceci had a deal with Maradona that the revenue generated by the use of Maradona’s image would be split between Diego and Ceci 50/50. Napoli paid for the image rights of Maradona’s face from Ceci and seem to be caught in the mix.
