Diego Maradona

Italian tax authorities have seized earrings worth €4,000 from visiting football legend Diego Maradona to help pay off his back taxes.

Tax-collection agency Equitalia said police seized the earrings at the clinic in northern Italy where Maradona checked in recently in a bid to lose weight. It was not Maradona's first run-in with Italian tax authorities, who say he owes the country €31m in back taxes from the time he played for top league club Napoli.

Maradona, who played for Napoli from 1984 to 1991 and is now the coach of Argentina, says the club should have paid the taxes.