RIO DE JANEIRO -- Diego Maradona has responded to being called a "bad luck charm" by the president of Argentina's football association by directing an obscene gesture towards him on live TV.
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Maradona was responding to reports that Julio Grondona called him a jinx after Argentina's 1-0 victory over Iran on Saturday.
Maradona watched the game at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte but left shortly before Lionel Messi scored the winner in stoppage time.
Argentine media reported that Grondona said "When the jinx left, we won the game."
Maradona, who has a spiky relationship with Grondona, later told Venezuelan broadcaster Telesur, for whom he is working as a pundit: ''I want to tell Grondona, who said that, that what I have, I earned working. What he has was bought by FIFA.''
Maradona added: "Argentina's victory was thanks to Lionel Messi, not because I left."
He reportedly stuck up his middle finger at the camera and told Grondona to "jinx this" and called him a "moron."