Balls

I'd better contain myself since I'm not used to bloggin'.

Facts:

Materazzi grabbed Zidane's shirt during the World Cup Final Italy vs. France 2006 and Zidane scoffed that he would give him his shirt after the game if he really wanted it. Materazzi replied he would rather have Zidane's sister (not even knowing that he actually had one).

NB: In Italy, disparaging someone's sister is a common way to retaliate in conversation.

Zidane turned and gave Materazzi a head-butt to the chest that knocked him down. Zidane was sent off the field with a red card.

Views:

Let me tell you what I think about Zidane and Materazzi. I played soccer (football, as we say in Europe) for quite a long time in my younger days. What Materazzi told Zidane, although definitely not nice, is a very light expression commonly used when you play at any level. It pretty much goes unnoticed and no offense is taken. Retaliation is given in the course of the game. You kick some ankles, you punch a bit when a corner kick comes along, and so it goes - friends as before.

I do like both players and they are not the ones being noisy with complaints over the situation. I believe the media has been pumping it up in order to have something to write, trying to create the classic controversy.

What is all this fuss for? Nothing, no big deal. These are things that happen in soccer every day all over the world. Yet, they nearly made a racial case out of it through their conjecture about what happened.

Morale: News and media need to talk from experience and stick to the facts or don't say anything at all.