7/11/2006
Reuters
ROME – Italy defender Marco Materazzi on Monday denied a report that he had called Zinedine Zidane a "dirty terrorist" seconds before the French captain head-butted him in Sunday's World Cup final.
"It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means," the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Materazzi as saying after the Italian team returned to Rome.
"The whole world saw what happened on live TV," he added.
The Paris-based anti-racism group SOS Racism had earlier quoted well informed sources as saying Materazzi had apparently used the phrase.
"According to several very well informed sources from the world of football, it would seem that the Italian player Marco Materazzi called Zinedine Zidane a 'dirty terrorist'," SOS Racism said in a statement.
Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, was shown a red card after the incident and Italy went on to win on penalties after the match was tied 1-1 following extra time.
SOS Racism called for an inquiry and said world soccer's governing body FIFA had recently toughened sanctions against racism.
"It's for this reason that SOS Racism asks in a determined fashion for FIFA to shed light on this altercation and that sanctions laid out in the official rules be applied should this be the case," SOS Racism said.
French television reported that Zidane would talk about the incident "in the coming days."
(Thank you Robby for the link)
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July 11th, 2006 at 1:24 am
Did anybody expect him to admit that he abused Zidane? And of course he’s right that the whole world saw what took place. But the question is whether the world heard what he said.
July 11th, 2006 at 11:07 am
I heard on Good Morning America that a ‘lip reader’ alleges Materazzi said to Zizou ‘death to you and all your family’ and Zizou reacted this way because he recently found out his mom is really ill.
How true this is, I dont know.
July 11th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Maria,
I hope it’s that and not a racial slur because if it is a racial slur, the press and all these rights groups will jump on the bandwagon and instead of tackling the problems at hand we’ll have political correctness infesting the game (which I think is just as bad as bigotry).
Anyhow, FIFA announced that it is officially opening an investigation so we’ll get the truth (I hope) soon enough.
July 11th, 2006 at 11:43 am
But there is no way to ever find out what exactly was said! Lip reading is not credible is it to be included in a investigation, is it?
July 11th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
investigation?….That could open up the door for so much more controversy in future games.
unless they could also attach a michrophone to every player too…
I wonder how could he speak the language but not “understand” the language playing in serie A for many years!
July 11th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Has anyone else wondered what Zizou said to Materazzi? The ‘lip reader’ expert dude on Good Morning America said that Materazzi right after grabbing him said ‘calm down’ and you can see that Zizou said something back, but you cant read his lips because he’s facing Materazzi…then the head butt, you cant see what Zizou is saying.
My opinion is that they both have equal fault, Materazzi for taunting and Zizou for responding or vice versa. Like someone said above, unless there is a mic on each player, we will never know what they said.
Also, would this head butt be getting the same attention if it was some other lesser known player? I doubt it.
July 11th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I think miking the players would make the games so much more fun!!!;)
It beats listening to the goofy commentary….
July 11th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
“calm down” is not really a bad thing to say!!! Now I wonder if Zidane’s answer has escalated the conversation to cursing?!!! Zizou could have answered like “screw you” or something of that nature (like “va fanculo” in Italian) and so on….
July 11th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
But seriously gang,
Zidane has already been punished for his actions and will get even more punishment whereas Materazzi walked away with the Cup. So I don’t see how this is even at all. And I think any player at any level would get this attention simply because it was the final match and the entire theme of the Cup this year was racial tolerance (something that has been plaguing football forever) so the idea of it having been a racial slur has a lot to do with the attention its getting. Having said that, it’s important to have it resolved so that conspiracy theories don’t gain momentum and cause even more racial unrest as a result.
July 11th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Kia stop showing off your Italian. We’re onto you.
July 11th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
LOL!
July 11th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Here is another source of information on Zidane. It has a bit more than we already know:
http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=217090
July 11th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
POD: I love Cannavaros smile.
July 11th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Materazzi said: “It was one of those insults you’re told tens of times and that always fly around the pitch,”
What if in fact it really was something like that and Zizou was just under pressure and he cracked?
French television reported that Zidane would talk about the incident “in the coming days.” Why in the coming days? Why not now? Why if it was that bad, why not now that events are fresh and recent in everyones mind? I dont get it.
PS I am not justifying anyones actions.