All the fuss for a head butt

The World Cup, again. This time though, it’s more of Marco Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane.

If we may recall, Zidane was given the red card during the Italy-France final (which Italy won) after giving Materazzi a head butt. If it somehow sparked controversy, it’s because of the way Zidane somehow ended his football career: if not ungracefully, he left the Olympiastadion in Berlin with a red card - not to mention Italy winning. As a BBC Sport article puts it, “it was a night when his reputation was tainted forever - when he showed he could not control his temper like he can a football.”

However, after the controversy has subsided, Zidane promised to explain why he did that action. There have been previous speculation that Materazzi was the one who provoked Zidane. Indeed, the Frenchman spoke up, saying that Materazzi hurled insults at him repeatedly during the altercation“, which led to the head butt.

Zidane, son of Algerian immigrants, said the words Materazzi told him were, as a translator puts it, “very personal things”. British radio station BBC Radio Five Live asked a deaf lip reader to decipher what the Italian apparent said, and apparently he said Zidane was “the son of a terrorist whore”. Further, the BBC’s Ten o’Clock News put experts in, and found out that, according to the video replays, Materazzi told Zidane to “calm down” before saying he was a “liar”, wishing “an ugly death to you and your family”, and later saying “go f*** yourself”.

Zidane, in a press conference held long after the game, apologized for his actions, but didn’t express regret over what he did. “I can’t regret what I did,” he said, “because it would mean that he was right to say all that.”

Materazzi, however, denies the allegations. Reacting immediately after the press conference, he denied having insulted his mother. “I lost my mother when I was fifteen years old and still get emotional when I talk about it,” he said. “Naturally, I didn’t know that his mother was in hospital but I wish her all the best.”

There were claims that the Italian called Zidane a “terrorist”, but an article in La Gazetta dello Sport quotes Materazzi as saying: “I didn’t call Zidane a terrorist and certainly didn’t mention his mother. I did not bring up Zidane’s mother; for me, a mother is sacred.” The Italian admits, however, that when they clashed at the Italian penalty area moments before the exchange of words, he held his shirt for a few seconds. After looking up and down with arrogance, as Materazzi puts it, “he said ‘if you really want my shirt, you can have it later’. It’s true, I shot back with an insult.”

Despite the FIFA threatening to strip Zidane of the Golden Ball award after the occasion, Materazzi maintains that the Frenchman should retain the award. The organization is now to open an inquiry into the actions, focusing on allegations that the Italian hurled personal insults against Zidane. And, if it’s related in any way, the referee who sent Zidane out, Argentinian Horacio Elizondo, is considering retiring from officiating the game.

So much for a head butt - and for everything else that happened.