BUENOS AIRES: Assuming Diego Maradona curbs his tongue, FIFA's two-month ban announced on Sunday leaves the volatile Argentine coach free to return center stage to next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.

It was a tournament he left in ignominy in 1994 after being sent home for a doping offense and it seems unlikely he would risk missing out again.

Maradona famously said at the time that his legs had been cut off but FIFA's punishment this time round amounts to more of a heavy slap on the wrist rather than anything more drastic.