Russian journalist accuses Diego Maradona of forcibly removing her dress during interview

A beautiful Russian journalist has accused football idol Diego Maradona of forcibly removing her dress when she went to his room to interview him.

Reports say, she has now filed a formal complaint against him, though Maradona denied the allegation. His aides say it was the other way round, that the reporter was the one who "started undressing herself" in his room, forcing him to call hotel security in St Petersburg.

The journalist, Ekaterina Nadolskaya, 30, said she had been in the lobby bar of his hotel when they started talking. She asked him for an interview and he invited her to his room. She claimed a female friend accompanied her but soon left.

“Maradona shut the door, and first starting answering my questions and then began harassing me,” she said in a complaint to the Russian Investigative Committee, seen as an equivalent of the FBI.

He forced off her dress, leaving her in her underwear and that was when she succeeded in stopping him from harassing her, she claims. She said he immediately called hotel security when he saw she wouldn't give in.

“In turn, he called the hotel security service. Three people carried me to the corridor. My belongings were left in the room. My phone was taken and not returned till three hours later.”

She further claimed that Maradona’s “assistant came and threw $500 US dollars at me”. She said that for the next three hours, she was forced to sit in only her underwear in the lobby of the five-star hotel before her clothing was returned.

“Employees of the hotel tried to kick her out but she insisted she would leave only with police,” reported newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Police arrived to the hotel at around 8am.”

She said it was when police came that she got her clothes back and no one cared to apologise to her.

Ekaterina said: “I am sorry that Maradona acted the way he did, it’s not worthy of a man. What he did can be seen on the CCTV footage.”

Sources close to the 56-year-old Argentine star said the woman was not telling the truth and she was the one who “got to his room and started undressing herself."

“Maradona didn’t like it and asked her to leave,” a source from Maradona's camp claimed.

The retired football legend was in Russia for the Confederation Cup final, won by Germany on Sunday and that was when the incident occurred. The newspaper said representatives of the Investigative Committee interrogated hotel personnel and Maradona though there was no comment from the Investigative Committee.