When I saw the replay of what happened between Zidane and the Italian player during the World Cup final I was completely shocked ! It was not part of the original match coverage so there was a lot of confusion and articles since have explained that video footage from a fourth referee was used to make the decision to give Zidane the red card. This was obviously the best decision regardless of what was said.
Before Zidane actually gave his interview, to a privately owned television company that has previously sponsored him, several newspapers took turns in determining what was said to him. One claimed he was called a dirty terrorist by the Italian player. I must say I nearly felt what Zidane did was justified when I thought this might have been true ! When reasoning with the facts in my mind though, the simple and 'just solution' is that the Italian player (that I have deliberately not named since he's obviously not worth it !) should be sanctioned if this is what he said. 'Le Monde' put forward ideas that the Italian player may have called Zidane's sister or mother names. This is according to Zidane's interview, was what actually happened.
Justice, legal systems and rules are created to stop people from getting away with things like what Zidane did and what this Italian football player said !
Although bloggers are bringing on the humour factor here (Athletes behaving badly) and here (how different countries saw the event), this really is an after-shock doubled by disappointment.
Disappointment because Zidane chose a channel that is scrambled to the general public to have his interview when he claims to be close to the people. The fact that the interview wasn’t actually scrambled doesn’t change the fact that many people don’t even have the channel configured on their televisions. I was also disappointed in the way that Zidane behaved during the interview. After having said he was sorry to all the kids that saw what he did, he went on to say that he didn’t regret what he had done !
So all the teachers that have to stop fights in the playground when one kid says something unkind or very unkind will have to deal with explaining to them that their idol may have said he’d do it again given the circumstances but he was WRONG to say that.
What happened to “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me†! Zidane’s reaction on the pitch during the game and off the pitch during the interview are both unacceptable. Saying he’s sorry to the kids in his interview and then saying he’d do it again is just totally irresponsible especially after having discussed the subject of children that look up to him…
It seems according to a Spiegel article that Zidane's mother has requested the Italian player's "balls on a platter" for what he said to her son !