Maradona wants more protection for Messi and Tevez

Mad Maradona is calling on World Cup referees to not be so afraid of blowing the whistle on players. He is basically asking for more protection for flair players at the World Cup, including Lionel Messi.

Now, we are not former footballing superstars here, we're all quite good at five-a-side, but we think the referees in this World Cup are excellent. They are not blowing for players falling over easily and they seem to have remembered that football is a contact sport.

But Maradona is basically asking for more yellow and more red cards - is this something a manager should be asking for?

"If we are going to see a match when the star players are not going to be mistreated then I think the referees need to be a lot stricter, and if Korea's players do something to Messi or Carlos Tevez then they need to get out the yellow cards, and if it happens a second time, then that's it," said Maradona.

Messi is fantastic, as is Tevez and if they both play like they done for their club sides, they will win the World Cup by themselves - we wrote that a week ago, but I've seen both of them fall over too easily in the past and it is a horrible part of the game and now there is no advantage as the referees are not giving free kicks to players that fall over.

One of the best things about this World Cup so far is how the referees have refereed the games - keep it up and don't listen to Mad Maradona.