sure, Zidane's head attach is physical and his victim's fall is dramatic but whatever words that came out of Materazzi's mouth is 100 times more vicious and evil-spirited to provoke an experienced player like Zidane to do what he did. I do not endorse what Zidane did and he got his share of punishment and a permanent dent on his legacy. Why do that weasel Materazzi get to walk away and hide in his rat hole and deny anything and saying something like he didn't understand the words he said? He KNOWS what he says. His crime is tantamount to the following hypothesis: "say I want to rob a bank and of course I don't want to lay my hand on it. I know a mentally-unstable person who cannot resist teasing, and I go out to tease him intentionally so he do exactly what I want, am I innocent?" He is absolutely a coward, a disgrace to human nature. If he's on the stand instead of on the field, he would feel right at home with those Zaragova bigots who taunted Eto. I am probably just daydreaming but I truly hopes that some microphone did pick up what he said and let the world decides his fate.

Edited by Conaldinho - No swearing

But....

What if Zidane insulted Materazzi with Materazzi headbutting him? Death sentence ? They both had a childish behaviour, they both deserved red for unfair play, anyway ZZ had some choices else than a headbutt.
I loved ZZ, he was the best to me. He could have been a living myth. Sadly, focus on the words "could have"......

Dunno about over in Europe but here in Canada we're getting reports from 'sources' from inside the WC that say Materazzi called Zidane (Algerian) a 'dirty/Arab terrorist'.

Yeah same reports here, Materazzi has denied he said that but he was obviously going to deny something like that so you wouldnt know if its true or not

Everything said on a football field means sh!t!!!
You should know that if you ever played football.

Nice post for a good laugh though.

As I said in other thread. To insults you respond with insults or ask the one who insulted you for a fight when the game is finished (if you think the other has sth personal against you)

You definitely dont cheap shot your opponent

if FIFA does not take any action against any player who uses racial/religious/other hate slurs, why does it bother to do a campaign of "kick racism out of football"? Why don't they just tell Eto, Zoro and others who have suffered such taunting to go insult those fans back? Forza Italia, I don't endorse what ZZ did, I am not saying he should ask Materazzi for a fight or anything but it's apparent, though with a lack of hard evidence, that Materazzi did something very similar to those bigots at Zaragova or Inter. If he could get away with that easily (c'mon don't tell he got hurt by that head-butt) that probably means any other wicked player could keep abusing any other player in whatever means until they break down and cry/ or go postal. That's just not right.

When I saw Eto's video, all my symphathy went out for him. How much did he endure already before breaking down? I saluted the referee and other players who stood up and consoled him instead of standing on the sideline watching the drama unfolded.

yes he should be punished. and only him


now reading all these posts about us being cheats and all...all the rest of italian players have behaved impeccably...

so do not take credit away from italians because of one idiot..

there is this guy in the forum that says that italians are low life and not honourable...

dont let me dig up in england's past please...

oh but the brave drunk english supporters...they were honourable when they kileld 39 italians..

I am French but I just can't stand to hear that Italy cheated and stole the world cup. This is pure non sense.
I suspect that the persons who say that no nothing about football and watch it on tv every 4 years..

I have the highest respect for the italian team and its players, Del Pierro, Gattuso, Pirlo, Buffon etc... I would made an exception of course for Materazzi and Da Rossi.
well the latter paid (not enough...) but the former is still unpunished.

However Italiano, see you in September for the revenge

Do you think Materazzi will be in the team ? We'll prepare him a warm welcome

2004

Italia-Denmark

Totti has been insulted for 90 minutes by Poulsen and he spit on the danish player. A danish Television, with one camera fixed on Totti during the match, gave to the world this image.

What we said in Italy???
Totti is stupid, he deserves a disqualification (4 games)... we know that danish did something unfair but we accepted, as we accepted the 2-2 between Sweden and Denmark. this is football.

correct

I never liked zidane, and now nobody can defend him for what he have done
he is a foul, not a champion

Yeah, see you at Stade de France (I hope to be there)... now you "hate" us as we "hate" you after 98 and Euro 2000.. you now what means loose a final, you know what you means loose at penalties and see another nation becoming crazy... this is the spice of football.

About Materazzi: I has a warm welcome every sunday when he plays away

mon ami belis...materazzi is an idiot and he is famous for this behaviour...
I hope is banned for along time

i think you played better but football is cruel (remember euro2000 it was the other way round)

I think that it is not fair to blame all italians and players for what on idiot has done

Can you say the same about totti then?

totti never acted in violence like zidane did in his career, but I was sad when he spits on the face of poulsen, and I never tried to defend him

Zidane is impulsive and he have a terrible pressure -A world cup final , his last game in french team , the last game of his carreer -
I'm agree this is not a great champions attitude he make a serious error, he give in this action a bad exemple to the young and he deserve his red car.
But he still one of the most greatest player of the last 50 years maybe the best in the last 10 years.
Aimet Jacquet the french team coach said about him : "Outside the field he is a very nice guy but indisde this is a killer!!!!!!"
Zidane is not a [beep!]. He makes error that all. I'm not defending this headbutt but don't insult Zidane like the worstest criminal.

If u have proofs about what materazzi said to Zidane u can punish him. If u dont.. forget about it.

Zidane is out anyway and i think he still have many things that make him happy right now.

Personally I find a spat on somebody's face more despicable that a good headbutt but this is only my opinion

This is probably your definition of professionalism, on one side a discreet but dispicable foul , hoping not to be seen, on the other side a man that decides for some reason to forget about the world cup final, forget about his notoriety and popularity to defend his honor and his family's.
Well, he shouldnt have done that, true, since there is no honor and respect anymore on a football pitch anyway.
I would have naively thought that in a final of a worldcup, players would have showed more respect and stopped insulting eachother like they used to do where they were teenager. This was apparently too much to ask.

I hope you are ironic when you say we hate each other, because it's dramatic....it's just a game and Italy and France have a long common history. I was born in a small city with a lot of italians, have many friends among them.

hate//big word it was in brackets...

the world has bigger problem than a world cup

me I am working as all of you

my bank account does not increase

the wolrd cup is over

back to everyday reality

and the billionaire footballers to their expensive holidays and model girlfriends

so my love for all you

wherever you are from

ok you all say that's football with the insults,but to me that's the cancer of football,all these provokers,like materazzi but he's not alone he just did it in THE FINAL of the WORLD CUP

against the BEST player of the WORLD in his very last game!


see the big difference??


matterazi knew what he was doing when he insulted him badly,zidane is one of the calmest players snapped,yes he snapped before,but how many times do defenders snap and punch,tackle pull and do all kinds of [beep!]!


but when zidane does it ooh boy !

How dare Materazzi hit Zidane on the head with his chest!

Poor Zidane only lowered his head for a few moments and SMACK!!! That horrible Materazzi connected with his bony chest.

There is no place for this in football. It was so wrong and should be followed by a life ban.

The World Cup should be taken from Italy and given to any other Nation that never had the ability to win this time.

Please form an orderly queue....

(I just love the posts from people who are NOT football fans. Until you live it, breathe it and sweat it, year after year, you know nothing of passion and committment.)

Forza Italia! - Will all the wine from France be made with sour grapes? Quel Dommage!

For those who thinks that Materazzi should NOT be punished (instead of unpunishable because of lack of evidence), this is excerpted from the Guardian: "Should the inquiry prove that the Italian's (referring to Materazzi) comments were a racial slur there will be a clamour for swift and decisive action. That began yesterday with the Premiership's head of refereeing Keith Hackett calling for Fifa to set an example. "They are reluctant to take action after the game but here is a situation where, if there is proof, for the good of the game action should be taken," said Hackett. "I am pleased the FA in May wrote a circular to all clubs, through the Professional Footballers' Association and the League Managers Association, reminding everyone that racism constitutes a sending-off offence.""

just to inform you:


Blatter has opened an investigation for Zidane's reaction. not on materazzi's words.
So ZZ could loose his golden ball award

Since I started this thread, I think I need to make a statement on whether I think Materazzi should be punished by FIFA . Zidane stated in wednesday's interview that Materazzi did not use racial slurs against him, but he did say that Materazzi insulted his mother/sister, which Materazzi denied. If what Zidane said is true, and as much as I despise Materazzi's character and have been bashing him in posts, I do not think FIFA has much grounds to punish him since his remarks is not relevant to the "official" clampdown on racism. However, given that more people could relate to "family" insults than "racial" or "religious" insults, the silver lining is that more people will despise what Materazzi did.

Now the interesting thing is: what's Blatter gonna do w/ ZZ's golden ball? If they take it away, and Materazzi walks, such gesture will surely receive a lot of negative sentiments around the globe despite FIFA following all its rules. ZZ becomes the contemporary "Robin Hood." Unlike medals taken away because of drug abuse, this scenario is all about subjective judgements. Those who voted for ZZ might or might not vote for him regardless of the incident. If FIFA takes away the award, what it is saying is: we have the rights to replace all your subjective thinking.

Plus, if FIFA takes away the GG, it will award it to Cannavaro (whom I believe should receive the award in the first place, regardless of the incident) , conspiracy theorists will have a field day against an "alliance" between FIFA and Italy. Italy got their world cup already, FIFA knows that there is almost no positive things coming out of awarding this extra trophy to Cannavaro and it will only generate more negative sentiments.

my conclusion is: ZZ will get to keep his GG, the investigation committee will likely issue some statement regarding that ZZ did a very bad thing but there is not enough justification to take away the trophy from him.

Next up: will Materazzi respond to the contradictory statements (ie. mother insult vs no mother insult). I bet not, he's not that dumb not to know that 90% of the world hold a much higher esteem for ZZ and more people believe in what ZZ says vs his words. Given that he's presumably a big weasel, he does not have that kind of ZZ character that will come out and strongly defend his own actions and accept the consequence.