Maradona, Bolivia president play soccer charity match

LIMA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Bolivian president Evo Morales and Argentine soccer celebrity Diego Armando Maradona played a charity game in Bolivia's administrative capital La Paz on Monday to raise money for flood-hit Bolivians, according to news reaching here on Monday.

The match, at the Hernan Siles Suazo Stadium, at 3,600 meters above sea level, also served to protest the sport's governing body's decision to restrict international soccer matches to venues below 2,750 meters above sea level, which bars most of Bolivia.

"We have shown them that we can run on this pitch," Maradona said at the end of the first half, "We are doing charity work to a people that has been pummeled by nature."

Maradona was part of a team that included Argentines Diego Latorre, Esteban Pogany and Matias Almeyda. Morales led a team that included his ministers, bodyguards and former soccer stars Marco "Diablo" Echeverry, Erwon Sanchez and Milton Melgar, all three of whom were in 1994's World Cup in the United States.

During half time, Morales gave Maradona the Libertador Simon Bolivar Civil Merit medal and gave him a Bolivian national soccer team shirt.

The money raised by the match will go to support those who suffered from La Nina, the weather phenomenon that lead to severe flooding and left nearly 100,000 people homeless, flooded productive land and drowned hundreds of cattle.