Diego Maradona has reportedly threatened to resign after only two weeks as Argentina coach, upset because the president of the country’s football federation won’t let him appoint the rest of his coaching staff.

Maradona reportedly said he may leave before or after Wednesday’s coaching debut in a friendly at Scotland, according to the major Argentine newspapers and TV stations, all citing a private conversation between the country’s soccer federation president Julio Grondona and Maradona. No attribution was provided.

Although the 48-year-old Maradona hasn’t spoken publicly on the issue, team manager Carlos Bilardo said the former star player would remain coach.

“I don’t think he’s resigning,” Bilardo told Buenos Aires television station C5N on Wednesday.

Bilardo acknowledged, however, that there has been a tense dispute between Maradona and Grondona over the coach’s appointment of Oscar Ruggeri as his assistant.

“The president of the federation is in charge and the head of the coaching staff is Maradona,” Bilardo said. “Maradona has to choose the coaching staff. These things are always discussed to try and reach an agreement.”

The dispute between Maradona and Grondona is over Ruggeri, Maradona’s teammate when Argentina won the 1986 World Cup.

Grondona said he disagrees with the appointment of Ruggeri as Maradona’s assistant, saying he prefers Sergio Batista and Jose Luis Brown _ currently coach and assistant for Argentina’s youth team.

Although Maradona has been at odds in the past with Ruggeri, he said his former teammate can teach the players the expertise he gained as a leading defender during three World Cups.

Grondona has made no attempt to hide his disdain when asked about Ruggeri, saying late Wednesday that he didn’t want him on the staff because “I don’t like the looks of him.”

Ruggeri has publicly criticized Grondona, also a FIFA vice president.

In October 2007, Ruggeri said Grondona should “leave the Argentine federation and just go home,” and recently called him an “old man” unfit to run the powerful organization.

Argentine federation member Noray Nakis echoed Grondona’s doubts Wednesday.

“After the statements by Ruggeri, coming to work with us here, I don’t know,” he told Buenos Aires-based Mitre radio.

Maradona has captured the headlines since rumors circulated about his appointment at the end of October, and Thursday’s controversy was no exception.

The headline across the sports section of best-selling daily Clarin read “The House is in Disarray” over a picture of Maradona and Bilardo, with Grondona out of focus in the background.

But the controversy isn’t raising many eyebrows. According to an unofficial poll by Clarin, 90 percent of 9,100 online voters said they weren’t surprised at the recent development.

Maradona’s flamboyant plays on the field _ including the infamous 1986 “Hand of God,” when he punched the ball into the net with his left hand _ have at times been surpassed by his antics off the field, including eccentric behavior like shooting an air gun at reporters and near-death battles with drugs and obesity.

He has lived more like a rock star than a former star athlete.

Top-selling daily La Nacion placed a photo of Ruggeri between a photo of a stern looking Grondona gazing at a happy-go-lucky Maradona, above the headline “Ground Turbulence.”

Ruggeri tried to rise above the controversy Thursday.

“I don’t have words to thank Maradona. I’m dying to be there on the inside,” Ruggeri told Buenos Aires-based radio station La Red.

He said he wouldn’t back down from the heated dispute, confident he would be able to convince Grondona he’s the right man for the job. But Ruggeri said his pending appointment would be decided after Maradona returns from Scotland.

Argentina’s next friendly after Scotland is in February against France, followed by a World Cup qualifier against Venezuela in March.

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Associated Press writer Debora Rey contributed to this report.