Zidane's headbutt meets its conclusion: Punishment

FIFA handed out punishments to France's Zinedine Zidane and Italy's Marco Materazzi resulting from the headbutt by Zidane on Materazzi seen by billions of soccer fans watching the World Cup Final and millions of non-soccer fans on the internet.

Zindane was "suspended" for 3 international games and fined $6,000. For Zidane, suspended is a questionable term since he has retired from football. To have some symbolic punishment, he will serve community service.

Materazzi was also punished for provoking the Frenchman's wrath, fined $4,000 and suspended for 2 international games. He will serve his suspensions in September during European Championship qualifying, one against Lithuania and the second against France.

One thing that did not happen was the revoking of Zidane's Golden Ball Award. It's a weird punishment in a lot of ways, since suspension isn't really punishment for retired players.

Source

• http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/07/20/zidane.banned.ap/index.html

Date

Thu 07/20/06, 8:48 am EST

DNLLegend

1082 days ago

Score 0

Do players get paid to play in the World Cup? It seems like a lot of money to fine a guy who isn't getting paid. Also, does anyone else find it weird that Materazzi was punished? If Zidane controled himself, there'd be no way we'd know of Materazzi's words.

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JoebookRed-Shirting

1082 days ago

Score 1

Suspending Materazzi is an absolute disgrace. Think about what FIFA is telling the world: talking trash is illegal. If this was the case, there would only be 15 players left in the NBA. I agree with DNL that if Zidane had acted like a professional and let his legs do the talking, nobody would know about the comments. FIFA is saying that a brutal head butt is worth three games and trash talking is worth 2/3 of that? What a joke... since Zidane is retiring, he could have been suspended for 30 games and it wouldn't have mattered. FIFA had a chance to make a statement and they blew it.

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ChristofMVP

1082 days ago

Score 0

Materazzi's suspesion is uncall for. I was wondering who make get the Friday Fryer Chair Award for this week. I think I just found the winner. Official announcement comes tomorrow.

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Madproof9Red-Shirting

1082 days ago

Score 0

There would be only 15 players left in all of sports combined. Trash talking is part of the game. You get into opponents heads. You mess with them, and make them forget about the game, and make them think about something else. Sports are 50% physical, and 50% mental. If you can disrupt a players mental concentration just by talking, good for you. There is no way you should be suspended for it.

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ThecrookedcapAll-Star

1082 days ago

Score 0

Sports leagues punishing provocation all the time. It may not be as obvious as say, a pitcher hitting a player in baseball, but it's still the same thing.

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Sayhey-rodSoccer Kid

1081 days ago

Score 0

Yeah, but FIFA or any other Football Association has never penalized any other provoker as they are doing Materazzi. Just think of the precedent they are setting- whenever a player gets dismissed from now on he can claim he was taunted.

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