A Russian journalist has filed a formal complaint against football icon Diego Maradona accusing him ripping her clothes off when she went to his room to interview him.
Ekaterina Nadolskaya, 30, said the Argentine former sports star took her dress off before his men carried her into the corridor in her underwear.
She claims she was forced to wait half naked in the lobby for three hours as she waited for her clothes to be returned.
Maradona, 56, denies the accusation, and his aides allege the reporter ‘started undressing herself’ prompting him to call hotel security in St Petersburg.
Ms Nadolskaya said she had been in the lobby bar of his hotel when they started talking.
‘I asked him for an interview. He invited me to his room,’ she said.
A female friend accompanied her but soon left, according to her account in a complaint to the Russian Investigative Committee, seen as an equivalent of the FBI.
‘Maradona shut the door, and first starting answering my questions and then began harassing me,’ she said.
He forced off her dress and she ‘managed to stop the harassment only when she was in her underwear’, reported newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Maradona ‘even tried to take her dress off, and actually managed to do so.’
She told her employers sm.news.ru: ‘I got scared and threatened him I would call the police.
‘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 claimed that Maradona’s ‘assistant came and threw $500 US dollars at me’.
The journalist complained that she was forced to sit for three hours in only her underwear in the lobby of the five star hotel before her clothing was returned.
Local paper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Employees of the hotel tried to kick her out but she insisted she would only leave with police, who arrived at 8am.
She said: ‘That is when I got my dress back.
‘No one apologised.
‘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.’
She said she was ‘stressed out’ after the alleged bedroom incident.
Sources close to the retired footballer, seen by many as the greatest player ever,said the woman ‘got to his room and started undressing herself’.
‘Maradona didn’t like it and asked her to leave,’ they said.
The hotel – which was not named – played down the problem to Russian newspapers, claiming the night was ‘quiet’.
The newspaper said representatives of the Investigative Committee interrogated hotel personnel and Maradona, but the detectives made no comment.
The Argentine was in Russia for the Confederation Cup final, won by Germany on Sunday.
He was an official guest of the tournament organisers.
His trip to Russia came amid suggestions he may seek a Russian passport from Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s vice premier and former sports minister, said: ‘Let’s not run ahead. We haven’t discussed this but in general he’s willing to talk.’
