SOS Racism? Never heard of them. Most of these 'pressure groups' seem to be better at stirring UP trouble than resolving matters.

"According to several very well informed sources from the world of football, it would seem that the Italian player Marco Materazzi called Zinedine Zidane..."

"Well informed sources", hm? Eh, there's only two people in the world who know the absolute truth of what was said, and one will doubtless try and exaggerate it whilst the other would naturally try and downplay it.

Probably we'll never know the real truth... but it's kinda interesting to speculate.

Not that there's been any guesses yet that sounds specifically racist anyway.

According to the latest news it seems that Materazzi called "terrorist" to Zidane lol
anyway no point on going on with this topic, the red was deserved regarding any provocation the french just ate some of their own poison

Materazzi has just said he doesn't know what a terrorist is...
Some people say he blamed Zizou's sister

even if he called zidane a monkey, he should be mature enough to calm himself down.

in argentina a journalist said that materazzi said to zidane"argeline sun of a bith" because of his parents thar are from argelia

From what ITN news have said apparently materazzi said

"I slept with your mother last night.....she is an algerian whore!"

Zidane's mother is sick at the moment and he has been worried about her.

Ok, sorry for that. I lost my mind yesterday i am still shocked.
I said a lot of stupid words not only to you. ((

My favorite Italian club is Sampdoria.
I don't think that Sheva is the greatest player anymore. His past works for him.

What I don't understand is:
Why didn't Zidane just punch him in the face really really hard? There's no doubt for me Materrazi said something awful and that Zidane overreacted but if you gotta hit him, at least hit him hard.

I was for France all the way, they deserved it and are our neighbors. Zidane is a hero and Treseguet one of the best forwards in the world. It was just bad luck, another drama that football has written. In this drama Italy (although a great football nation) played the evil part with their league scandal, the way that they got rid of Frings and a couple of other things. In the end evil won it.

Don't take this literally please, on the field against Germany they were ok (not many dives etc.) and except for Materrazi against France they weren't bad either.

Allez Zizou

All I have to say is that Zidane is a great player probably the best player in his time. Now to the Italians, your racist chants and racist ideas needs to be put aside from Football. Im not surprised if the italian used a racial slur when its part of italian football mantality to attack players for their racial ethnicities. SHAME ON YOU ITALIAN FOOTBALL WITH YOUR CORRUPTION AND RACIAL HATE, ITALY DID NOT DESERVE TO WIN THE FINAL GAME, FRANCE OUT PLAYED THEM AND DESERVED TO WIN. Besides, italy had an easy road to the cup besides germany. LETS HOPE ITALIAN CORRUPTION DOES NOT GET PARDONED BY THEIR UNDESERVING WIN

Come on. If he really said terrorist, how can anyone react like that. That's not even a real insult.

moral stance by the english ah ahah

you and your crappy sun papers you and your talk about your great sides

whose holigans are more right wing than anybody'else


rubbish

Well you can have your eyes closed all you want, but the fact is that Italian football has a major problem with the facist mantality which is clear during Italian football games, Period.

Lol this insult should have made him laugh, not fight...

i am a leftie and I hate racist. it was a hotheaded stupid thing ny materazzi. this is no reasons to slander a whole country and the other iper-correct players

Quite right.

In fact, none of the suggestions and guesses that are beinhg claimed so far are a 'real' insult, or even a new insult or a particularly shocking insult.

So far the collection of guesses and alleged lip reads and 'well informed sources' seem to be along the lines of:

- your are a monkey [or other primate. baboon? chimpanzee? not known]
- your mother is a whore.
- your sister is a whore
- [unknown whore-taunt as to aunt, grandmother or other female relative]
- I slept with your mother
- I slept with your sister
- [unknown if he claimed to have slept with aunt, grandmother or other female relative]
- you are the son of a b*tch
- you are the son of an algerian b*tch
- your sister is a b*tch [etc for aunt/grandmother]
- you are a terrorist
- you are a dirty terrorist
- your mother is a terrorist and i was a dirty algerian and slept with her
- [use as many different mix & matches as wished]

If he hasn't heard any of those before on and around the football pitches then he sure must have been wearing ear-plugs for every game he played!

And if Matzy managed to say all of those in the few seconds that he had to spare then he must go in the Guinness Book of Recods for being able to speack faster than any human on earth!!!!

Anyway, They aren't 'proper' insults. And I bet he's said the same and worse in his career.

And yet still - the truth so far is NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WAS SAID.

Everyone is still guessing, and saying the thing that they think will justofy his actions most.

No justification. The man can't control his temper when it really matters. Zidane is a talented football player, yes. But a good example to youngesters? No way.

The truth for the time being is that nobody really knows what Materazzi said exactly. And I fear nobody will ever know what happened exactly. I guess that ZZ will be discreet as usual and Materazzi will have no problem to deny all the different unofficial versions.

The last version from the Guardian (according to an italian lips-reader) :

"Marco Materazzi provoked Zinedine Zidane by saying, "I wish an ugly death to you and all your family". "

Knowing that Zidane's mother is in hospital with a serious desease... That could explain this moment of madness , although all the cool head of this forum will keep on saying that ZZ is stupid...

That's a new one! I didn't have that on my list....



Of course. Though I would suggest 'unprofessional' is a better word than stupid.

When you play sport at that level, then you leave your personal family worries OUTSIDE the stadium. You focus only on the game and your team. Nothing else. If your worries are so pressing that they distract you, or make you vulnerable, then you should not be on the field. Because you are a liability to your team, and can be exploited by sneaky verbal tactics.

IF and only if the insult was mother-related:
So he went on the field, but could not leave his worries off the field. Bad for his team. Selfish to want last glory if he could not stay 100% professional. He was emotionally vulnerable, and the opposition saw that vulnerability and shot barbs into his psyche. He responded madly, and the rest is history. Bad example to up and coming young footballers.

Easy man... maybe u will win next time...

Maybe if you say terrorist to a white thats not a real insult but for a algerian son that can be considered like a terrible insult. Zidane don't have to react like that, but if Materrazzi said it he had to be punished to.

You speak gold Carrie. You have a sure cool head and a very clever mind but do you have a heart ?

Carrie, if your mother is dying and a stupid asshole says a bad joke on the death of your mother and your family ? Are you sure you would behave as a 100% professionnal ?