Zidane / Materazzi
All that you should know about Zidane knocking off Materazzi!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Materazzi says
I doubt we'll ever know what Materazzi and Zidane said to each other on that 9th of July night.
Anyway, let your imagination flow and make the subtitles yourself :
http://www.materazzisays.com/
Friday, July 14, 2006
Materazzi heard by the FIFA
Materazzi was heard in advance this morning by the FIFA. This early audition was requested by Materazzi because he wanted some vacation. No information was leaked and Zidane now has to be heard before a one-to-one confrontation on July 20th.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Marco Materazzi under investigation
FIFA announced in a press release that an investigation was opened against Marco Materazzi.
Thursday, July 20th, both players will be heard by a commission and a decision will be announced later that day.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Zidane explains himself on French TV
Zidane was interviewed on French's TV channel Canal+. After having reviewed the whole competition with the France team, he finally commented on the famous Materazzi knock-out.
He apologized for having given a bad example for young children. However, he didn't regret the headbutt. He didn't say if Materazzi's insults were racist, but insisted on the fact that it concerned his mother and his sister. Very "rough words" that were pronounced several times that explain -according to him- his burst of violence.
He confirmed that was his last professional match. And insisted again on the fact that Materazzi was guilty of having said those nasty words.
Sepp Blatter warns Zidane might lose his Best player award
Wednesday, FIFA's president Sepp Blatter warned that the Best Player award given by international journalists might be taken back by FIFA "because of sport ethics".
A French lawyer wants to have the match cancelled
According to Paris' AFP news agency, a French lawyer has decided to have a court decide whether the France-Italy should be replayed.
The subject brought to court concerns the alleged use of video made by the 4th referee to send Zidane off the field. "It could be considered as an illegal mean, therefore conclusions should be drawn", says the attorney.
FIFA officially stated that video was not used by the 4th referee.
Italy to be disqualified?
A recent change in FIFA's Disciplinary Code (PDF) induces that the whole Italian team may be disqualified and lose the World Cup if Materazzi is charged with racial and/or religious slurs towards Zidane.
We'll follow up with this as soon as we know more about it...
BREAKING NEWS: Zidane to explain himself, tonight 8PM (GMT +1)
The French press agency AFP was told that Zidane would be interviewed on Canal+ at 8PM (GMT +1). He will explain what happened on that 9th of July.
Source (FR)
Shockwave game
Did you dream about it? It does exist now: the Shockwave game that lets you control Zidane and knock Materazzi off. Awesome!
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Follow-up: Zidane will explain himself, French forgive him
Interesting article from Time.com that sums up what we know about all the story.
Important things to note:
- Zidane may explain himself on French television (Canal+) next week
- Polls show that French people already forgive him for his unbelievable burst of violence
But all this is still speculation, we'll know more later, and we'll keep you updated of course!
FIFA to investigate the case
"FIFA will open a disciplinary investigation into Zidane's conduct to enable it to clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident as exactly as possible," FIFA said in a statement.
Materazzi's version of the story
Read on the Times Online:
"It is absolutely not true," Materazzi said. "I did not call him a terrorist. I’m ignorant. I don’t even know what the word means. The whole world saw what happened on live TV."
I'm not sure whether this will bring sympathy toward him!
Lego version of the action
Soccer fans are amazing!
See this Lego version of the knock-out. I can't wait for a full-animated version with multi-angle replays ;-)
A French blog filled with videos
I found out another Zidane/Materazzi dedicated blog. Written in French, it features loads of videos with Materazzi doing all kinds of nasty defensive moves...
A must see !
Let the games begin!
It didn't take long for creative minds to make out a video game about this epic fight!
Check it out for yourself, I guess it's the first of many more!




