What Happened to Zidane?

Zidane to work with children as penalty for his headbutt
BEN GLADWELL

ZINEDINE Zidane is to carry out three days of community service after the headbutting incident that marred the World Cup final, football`s governing body declared yesterday.
The French footballing legend was fined 7,500 Swiss francs (£3,360) and given a nominal three-match ban, but because he has since quit football it was agreed that he will do three days of community service with children as part of FIFA`s humanitarian projects.

The Italy defender Marco Materazzi was told he must pay 5,000 francs (£2,170) and received a two-game suspension for provoking the incident. Italy, who had been under pressure before Zidane was sent off during extra time with the game poised at 1-1, went on to win 5-3 on penalties.

The ruling means Materazzi will miss Italy`s trip to Paris for their Euro 2008 qualifier against the French on 6 September, as well as their match against Lithuania in Naples four days earlier. FIFA confirmed the Italian defender`s comments to Zidane had not been of a racist nature.

World football`s organising body also confirmed that Zidane, who earned £8.87 million in 2005, would keep his golden ball award as the tournament`s best player.

Zidane`s sending-off hit the French at a time when they appeared to be getting on top and deprived them of their best penalty-taker. The midfielder later complained that Materazzi had provoked him with remarks about his family. FIFA, while excluding any racial element, has not disclosed exactly what the Italian said.

Both players have a history of disciplinary troubles, and the sending-off was the 14th of Zidane`s career and his second in a World Cup - he picked up a two-match ban for stamping on a Saudi Arabian opponent in the 1998 tournament, won by France.

Materazzi is widely remembered in England for the three red cards he picked up in just 32 appearances for Everton.

Legal challenge to World Cup result

A French lawyer plans to mount a legal challenge to the World Cup final result to establish whether the expulsion of Zinedine Zidane was within the rules.

Mehana Mouhou said he intended to ask a Paris court to question the fourth official to ascertain whether he had illegally used videotape to check what had happened.

``If a judge determines that illegal methods were used, the proper consequences must be drawn,`` he said. ``That means that Zidane should never have been sent off and it would be impossible to predict what the match result would have been and it should be replayed.``

Mouhou said he was acting on behalf of ``several football clubs.``

The real question is When does a game stop being a a game?

when you have social scientists and other jobsworthies and assorted jobless wonders pontificating on the meaning of a game, and the real meaning of incidents taking place in the game. So take for example the Zidane case. Its pure and simple case of one player coaxing (and goading )the other to take drastic action and law into his hands, there by eliminating his threat from the game. The two players have played together at club level, part of the same team etc and know the soft spots. Its gamesmanship. But to attribute a higher meaning to this is silly and ridiculous.

I for one thought Zidane was true to form and did the right thing - head butting the player. Football is after all an extremely rough game. A game created by ruffians and the no good dregs of the society,,/b> with the rules super imposed, by a snobbish middle class, to bring some order to these hooligans. What Zidane did was in the spirit of the original creators of the game. What the Italian guy did was also within the same framework. The Intellectuals should stop bringing in their middle class sensibilities and insecurities and above all their sniffyness to this beautiful game played by over paid hooligans