Zidane's Mom about Materazzi: "I want his balls on a platter"

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

"LOOK out Marco Materazzi. Zinedine Zidane's mother knows that you sledged her son and she wants you to know she's not happy.

In fact, she wants something more.

"I have nothing but contempt for Materazzi and, if what he said is true, then I want his balls on a platter," Malika Zidane was reported as saying in a London newspaper.

Mrs Zidane was reacting to the infamous exchange between Materazzi and Zidane which led to the latter being sent off in the World Cup final won by Italy on Monday morning.

Zidane headbutted Materazzi in the chest during extra time and the sporting world is still waiting to learn what he said to enrage the Frenchman.

One theory goes that Materazzi said: "We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore"."

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/story/0,20797,19766740-5003412,00.html

[rockymountaindem]

1. I have two thoughts on this matter

1) I don't blame Zidane.
2) If the shit hits the fan, my money is on him and his mom.

[CTyankee]

2. Why?

The guy clearly lost it. He also lost the match, and thus the WC for France, and he lost his good reputation. Then he marched off the field like a big baby.

Really tough guys don't let a snide remark get to them and make them lose their composure and the team's chance at the prize.

Stupid.

[anarch]

3. yeah, that really is pretty much the oldest trick in the book

I don't care what the guy said, Zidane should not have fallen for it. Oh well.

[matcom]

4. he didn't lose the WC OR the match for France

rediculous statement. he WOULD have been one of 5 kickers. he would have had ONE kick. one. period.

[CTyankee]

8. C'mon. He was their best player.

One kick, yeah, but his kick nonetheless.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

32. ....and they lost by exactly one kick.

[rockymountaindem]

5. I don't blame Zidane because

a soccer match like that is a physical contest, and he reacted to what appears extreme provocation in a physical way. It's not like he was walking down the street on a sunny day and attacked a heckler. The adrenaline and testosterone were flowing in both those guys and something bad happened. If it was going to happen somewhere, it was going to happen there and it doesn't really bother me.

Secondly, I don't like it when people say "well, if they hadn't blown this opportunity, they would have won". I mean, France could have scored game-winning goals several times. They were on the attack most of the game, and while Zidane could have made a penalty kick it's not a guarantee.

Lastly, he didn't march off the field like a big baby... he was thrown off because he got a red card. He deserved the red card, certainly, but I don't think he deserves all the bad press from this. It takes two to tango.

[MadHound]

7. Zidane has a temper on him

And he's let it slip before. He's gotten kicked out on red cards fourteen times in his career, once for headbetting another player(previous to this time), and once for stomping the shit out of a prone Arab player.

I fault Zidane for falling for the oldest trick in the book. In fact I think that Zidane was starting to lose it a bit when he was denied by the miraculous block by Buffon on Zidane's header a few minutes earlier. He was screaming and yelling after the block, mad as hell and I think that this really stuck in his craw, and when Materazzi goaded him, he just lost it.

Did Zidane lose the WC for France. We'll never know, but he certainly lowered his teams odds of winning, drastically. It was a pretty sure bet that the match was heading for PKs at the time that Zidane was kicked out. For Zidane to remove himself in that manner, France's best penalty kicker, well that's flat out irresponsible. He prevented his team from having their best shot of winning the match, and for that, he is rightly the goat of the game.

[mark414]

18. bullshit

i was neutral on the outcome of the game but if france truly outplayed italy the game never even would've gone to overtime, let alone PKs...italy won and zidane had nothing to do with it - the guy who missed still would've taken his shot and still would've missed whether zidane took a PK or not...

[MadHound]

23. What bullshit?

:shrug:

The part about Zidane having a temper? It's true, you can go look up these facts and figures for yourself. Even Zidane admits to having a temper.

Or that Zidane was pissed after being denied a goal in overtime? Replay the game, it clearly shows him screaming and yelling, looking quite pissed and frustrated.

Or is it the statement I made about Zidane being France's best PKer? Well, it is true actually. The stats are there to back it up, and he actually won a quarterfinal match for France with a Penalty Kick, and in the Final he put France ahead initially with a PK.

And I never said that France outplayed Italy. Having it come down to PKs is indicitive that it was a prettly even match actually.

And the player who missed the Penalty Kick for France. His name is David Trezeguet. and he is a rarely used player for France, penalty kicks or otherwise. It is certain that if Zidane had been available for the PKs, he would have been kicking. And it is almost a certainty that Mr. Trezeguet would not have been kicking. French soccer, like any other team sport, has people tagged for certain game situations and the only reason that David Trezeguet was kicking was because of absolute neccessity.

Does this mean that France would have won? We'll never know. Zidane could have blown the PK like David Trezeguet did, though it is much less likely. However, like I said in my previous post, Zidane drastically lowered his teams odds of winning by denying them their best opportunity to win with his irresponsible action.

So again I ask, what bullshit?

[mark414]

24. he was pissed cause buffon blocked it

buffon punched it up over the net...how is that the refs denying a point?

all i'm saying is you can't blame the one guy for the loss, especially the one who got them there in the first place

[MadHound]

27. Yes, that is exactly what I said earlier

I didn't say that the refs denied a point, where do you get that?
And I think it was that anger and frustration that eventually led to the head butt a few minutes later. I don't think that if Zidane had taken that shot, or if he had made it, that he would have been so angry that the oldest trick in the book would have gotten him kicked out.

And I'm not saying that Zidane cost France the game. What I'm saying is that his actions significantly lowered France's odds of winning, and that Zidane is to blame for denying his team their best opportunity to win the game. He let Materazzi get the better of him, and took himself out of play at a point in the game when his team most needed his talent in PKs. Did it cost France the game, we can never say for sure. But it sure cost France their best shot at winning, and for that Zidane should indeed be condemned.

[CTyankee]

9. His demeanor when he marched off was

smirky and infantile.

Zidane acted like a loser. He seemed pissed that the point he scored was overruled by the ref. Since his moment of glory was snatched away from him he let himself go nuts. That's a big baby for you.

Lots of kids, including my grandkids, were watching that match. What a lesson in sportsmanship that idiot taught them!

Sorry, no respect here.

Forza Italia!

[LadyAziz]

11. Very true

If you watch Il Calcio you would know that Materazzi is a dirty player but he's been fantastic and controlled during the WC. I haven't followed Zidane's career I've only watched him play at Madrid but at his age he and experience should have known better. I don't think the incident would take away from what he has achieved but he it will certainly cast a shadow. Players insult one another in every game it's nothing new, you suck it up and move on.

The head butt incident, divers, and racism are scarring the beautiful game. Seriously i don't care much about Zidane or France, I was angry that they beat Brasil but they deserved to lose to Italy. France should be blaming their manager for picking Barthez, he is the worst GK i've have ever seen. France only got to the final because of their solid defense it wasn't a secret where their greatest weakness was and Italy beautifully put them away during the PKs.

[mark414]

21. what are you talking about?

he didn't have any point taken away by the refs, that was the italians. and he knew his punishment and he accepted it without hesitation, he walked off straight faced - methinks someone is biased...

[cassandra uprising]

12. thank you for posting this

I think this perspective is lost on a lot of folks. SI writer Phil Taylor put it nicely here:


Zidane said on Wednesday that he was provoked by insults about his mother and sister, and the comments must have been deeply hurtful or vile, otherwise Zidane -- something of a hothead, true, but a veteran who has no doubt been the target of some nasty slurs in his time -- would not have snapped in such an important game. It may be, as some have suggested, that the Italians were working on Zidane verbally the entire game, a perfectly legal and common tactic, and Materazzi's words were just the last straw. Either way, it's remarkable and unfair that Zidane is being so widely denounced while the instigator seems to be getting a free pass.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/phil_taylor/07/12/zidane/

Zidane shouldn't have lost his temper but I can't say that I blame him. I'd don't like to judge people for actions that I know in my heart I may have done if I had been in their shoes.

Think about it. This guy was goes from the gutter to a becoming an iconic figure in a relatively short period of time. I've also read a theory that Zidane snapped as a way of jumping off of the pedestal that everyone one has put him on. And in that moment, with all the pressure that he has been under in this cup, combined with the taunts and slurs thrown at him on the pitch, to running your ass off for a hundred minutes -it would wear anybody down.

But Zidane's looses face for his actions and not Materazzi? It's not right.

[CTyankee]

13. Look, this is a matter of "Do you want to win or do you want to

act out your anger as a two year old?"

Grown ups have choices that they make when they decide to do something. To deny this, is to deny human agency. Zidane decided, he made the choice, to act out in a childish way. He is an adult. He is not impaired. He can make a decision on his own. He decided to do something that was counter productive.

I don't care if he "snapped." He is a professional soccer player. He ought to know better. He is a grown man, 34 years old. At what point does he become a "man?"

C'mon folks, give me a break!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Oh, please don't try to turn this into a Bill Buckner.

Zidane didn't lose the match for France, or his reputation.

What is this? Fox Sports News?

[KamaAina]

22. B-ll B-ckn-r should have played soccer

you're not allowed to use your hands. With his utter lack of hand skills, he could have led the U.S. to a World Cup! :-)

And the proper sporting venue for Zidane? Why, the WWE, of course. :evilgrin:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

10. Zidane is at fault.

It's a common tactic to say the most offensive things possible in an effort to get someone to flip out and get disqualified.

[cobalt1999]

15. absolutely...

Some of you must never have played sports. You don't think that during an NFL game every type of insult imaginable is used to cause your opponent to "lose it"? Come on.

When I played any sports even among friends, anything would be said to gain an advantage.

Zidane was a professional for years, he should know better than to fall for that trick like a rookie.

[KevinJH87]

26. FIFA rules

According to http://www.fifa.com/en/organisation/legal/chamber/0,1489,2,00.html

Article 54 offensive behaviour:
1. Anyone who insults someone in any way, especially by using offensive
gestures or language, will be sanctioned with a match suspension.
If the perpetrator is a player, he will be suspended from at least two
matches; if he is an official, he will be suspended from at least four
matches.

Article 54 offensive behaviour:
1. Anyone who insults someone in any way, especially by using offensive
gestures or language, will be sanctioned with a match suspension.
If the perpetrator is a player, he will be suspended from at least two
matches; if he is an official, he will be suspended from at least four
matches.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

31. You let the refs do their job. Period.

If they don't, complain about it afterwards like everyone else. No excuses for Zidane at all.

[MrSlayer]

14. Sticks and stones.

Apparently the French dude never learned that. Can't blame the mom for her reaction though.

[mark414]

16. zidane said today that it was something about his mother and sister

that was said...though he would not elaborate

[smitty]

17. It just keeps getting more absurd.

Did Zidane overreact to an insult? If his mother's words are any guide, the family has an anger control problem. The Italian was doing his job getting into Zidane's head and Zidane was justly punished for his actions---unless you think that every sporting event should be patrolled by the Insult Police.

But I think Zidane knew exactly what he was doing when he head butted the Italian, now no soccer fan in the world will ever forget him.

[bridgit]

19. ah, moma's boy after all eh...

[ohno]

20. Honor

So, is solving a negative issue violently the new standard for honor?

[KevinJH87]

25. Zidane

1. Temper - Zidane has had 14 yellow cards in his career. However, I think he's been playing professional for 18 years. That is not too bad. He does have somewhat of a temper but normally he is cool and collected.

2. France - Who knows whether France would have won had that not happened? Penalty kicks are pretty much a lottery and Trezeguet (the guy who missed) had already come in the game and would still have taken his kick. Barthez (the French goalie) only allowed 3 goals during the tournament. However, he is an adventure. He also won games that went into penalty kicks in the 1998 World Cup, and Euro 2000. Zidane has already been forgiven by most in France. He is still a hero. He is the reason France made it so far as well as a major reason France won the 98 world cup and Euro 2000.

3. Mazerrati - Watch some of Mazerrati's playing. He is a very dirty player and has been suspended for 2 months for some of his actions before. In fact, some said he should not be on the Italian team at all because of his style. So far he has admitted insulting Zidane but he denied saying anything about his mother or being an islamist terrorist. His defense was that he was not cultured so he did not know what an islamist terrorist was. Zidane has only said that it involved his family.

4. Red Card - Zidane deserved a red card. There is no question about it. However there is controversy over whether any of the refs saw the action. FIFA states that the 4th ref (off the field) brought it to the refs attention and then he gave the red card. However, some sources (sorry I dont have any right here) show that the 4th ref did not see it until he saw it on the replay screen. If no ref saw the action no red card should be given sinse FIFA does not use instant replay. A good example is the Netherlands - Portugal game where Figo headbutted a player but was not penalized because no ref saw it.

Obviously zidane should not have reacted the way he did but I find it understandable. After all the pressure and fatigue of almost 120 minutes of playing in the world cup final Zidane could not take racist insults to his family. Zidane reached his breaking point. Everyone has one and I do not think anybody here could stand up to absolutely anything without reacting. Zidane has been punished. If FIFA wants to actually do something about racism Mazerrati needs to be punished.

[DelawareValleyDem]

28. Fourteen REDS, not yellows

and you correctly point out that Zidane only said the remarks involved his family. So why do you assume later in the post that the remarks were racist?

[KevinJH87]

29. zidane

Sorry, red cards.

Well while Zidane only said the comments were about his family, his parents are Algerian so he has muslim heritage and any comments regarding his family could easily have been racist. While lipreaders have not decided on the exact insults many have said Mazerrati called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore." These are not definate but I am just showing how they could hit Zidane's family and be racist.

[Strawman]

30. Mr. T says he could also go for some of them balls

http://www.geocities.com/nkpatel/mrt/