ANALYSIS-Soccer-Remorseful Maradona free to return centre stage

By Rex Gowar

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Assuming Diego Maradona curbs his tongue, FIFA's two-month ban announced on Sunday leaves the volatile Argentine coach free to return centre stage to next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.

It was a tournament he left in ignominy in 1994 after being sent home for a doping offence and it seems unlikely he would risk missing out again.

Maradona famously said at the time that his legs had been cut off, but FIFA's punishment this time round amounts to more of a heavy slap on the wrist rather than anything more drastic.

Having faced a touchline ban which could have sidelined him from part of next year's World Cup, he will instead miss two months of the year in which Argentine soccer takes its summer break.

A planned friendly against the Czech Republic next month, at a so-far unnamed venue, is the only match he is likely to have to sit out. The ban is largely symbolic.

FIFA's disciplinary committee were apparently impressed by what they described as the personal apologies and sincere remorse shown by Maradona who flew to the hearing in Switzerland from Madrid, where the previous night he had watched his team lose 2-1 to Spain.

The committee may also have been influenced by an Argentine FA report explaining that Maradona was acting "in a state of violent emotion over arguments with journalists" in the days before the World Cup qualifier.

Long accustomed to run-ins with reporters, such as the notorious occasion he fired an air pistol at a group of newshounds, Maradona had previously refused to apologise publicly for the outburst.