Diego Maradona’s agent and lawyer has vowed to take action after images emerged of three funeral workers posing for photographs next to the late Argentinian footballer’s open coffin.
Maradona, who died from a heart attack in Argentina on Wednesday, was buried on Thursday after tens of thousands of fans filed past his body as it lay in state at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires.
Within hours of the small, private burial, however, photos appeared on social media of the funeral home workers posing by his body.
One showed a man in a white shirt and black tie standing over the coffin, giving a thumbs-up sign, while another showed two men by Maradona’s body.
The owner of the funeral home said the family business had been devastated to discover what had happened, but insisted the three men pictured were not full-time employees.
“My dad is 75 and he’s crying,” Matías Picón, the manager of the Pinier funeral home, told Argentina’s TN news channel. “I’m crying. My brother’s crying, too. We’re all in pieces.”
Picón said the man in the white shirt was a temporary worker who had been brought in to help because Maradona’s cedar coffin weighed a lot and was hard to move.
He also said all three workers had handed over their mobile phones while in the mortuary, adding the photographs had been taken when the body was waiting to be transported to the presidential palace.
Picón said he had called Maradona’s former wife, Claudia Villafañe, to explain what had happened.
“She was very angry and told me it never should have happened, and that this wasn’t the photo they wanted,” he added. “I explained what had happened and said sorry.”
Maradona’s lawyer, Matías Morla, said he had identified the “piece of shit” who had taken the image of himself next to the coffin, adding: “For the sake of my friend’s memory, I will not rest until he pays for this outrage.”
The row came as another friend of the late footballer claimed that Maradona had wanted to be embalmed so his body could go on display, but that his family had decided against the move.
“When the idea of a statue first came up, he said: ‘No, I want them to embalm me,’” Martín Arévalo told TyC sports.
Arévalo confirmed the details of Maradona’s wishes to Reuters, adding that footballer wanted “to remain with us forever and for people to carry on seeing his body”.
Two other towering figures in Argentina’s modern history – President Juan Perón and his wife, Eva Perén – were embalmed.
Reuters contributed to this report
