Too often, we tend to base our judgement on what we think or what we understand and not on what happened, even with a total level of dignity we tend to celebrate those who achieve success through dubious manners making victims speechless and helpless.It was the evening of July 9th, 2006. This was the world cup final between France and Italy. More than 750millions football fans are ready to watch the match and also to see off one of the best footballers to grace the game. The stage was set for Zinedine Zidane to make his exit, he scored a well taken penalty and after the scoreline leveled to 1-1, that was when one of the most funny and heartbreaking scenario occur, the English commentator said "I can抰 believe this, Zidane's career is in disgrace'' because he head butted Marco Materazzi.Many took it personal because they couldn't understand why a footballer of such calibre will do that on the game's highest stage. With his action, Zidane抯 name was dragged to mud and not until after the match which was won by Italy; many do not care about what really happened between Marco and Zidane. 燤arco must have said something really offensive, because while Zidane was leaving the pitch he showed no sense of remorse at all.Marco Materazzi became a national hero after the 2006 world cup for Italy and Zidane became Judas who betrayedhis nation due to what many considered 損rotection of his own honour" over national honour.There are many stories attached to what really happened, many said Marco insulted Zidane抯 mother, while many said Marco insulted Zidane抯 sister, but according to a documentary titled : 50 MOST SHOCKING MOMENTS IN WORLD CUP HISTORY ,one of the commentators said there was a rumour about Zidane ,that 爓hile he was playing with Juventus FC , did something crazy with some merchants and Lippo was his coach then, which was the Italian side coach in the final against France had earlier toldMarco to mention this to Zidane just to see what the reaction would be and obviously we all saw his reaction.Zidane himself narrated his part on this issue and of course tendered his apology to the children who shouldn't see him do the head but especially on a world stage like that but he refused to apologise to Marco and agree to die than to apologise.In his words; "Things happen on the pitch. It's happened to me many times. But I could not stand it there. It is not an excuse. But my mother was ill. She was in hospital. This people did not know. "But it was a bad time. More than once they insulted my mother and I never responded. And [then] it happened. To apologise for this? No. If it was Kak�, a regular guy, a good guy, of course I would have apologised. But not to this one. "If I ask him forgiveness, I lack respect for myself and for all those I hold dear with all my heart. I apologise to football, to the fans, to the team."After the game, I went into the dressing room and told them: 'Forgive me. This doesn't change anything. But sorry everyone.' "But to him I cannot. Never, never. It would be to dishonour me. I'd rather die"Marco said he insulted Zidane's sister and not the mother, in his own words, Materazzi said that when Zidane offered to give him his France jersey after the final whistle, in response persistent shirt-tugging by the Italian, he had replied: "I would prefer your sister." Materazzi insisted however that he should not be blamed for sparking the incident. "I did not cause it," he told Gazzetta. "I answered verbally with a provocation to defend myself.� Yes, I was tugging his shirt, but when he said to me scornfully 'If you want my shirt so much I'll give it to you afterwards' is that not a provocation? I answered that I'd prefer his sister, it's true. "It's not a particularly nice thing to say, I recognize that. But loads of players say worse things ... I didn't even know he had a sister before all this happened," added Materazzi.All said and done, the question this author tends to answeris simple but very logic because in a scene like this many tend to blame Zidane far more than Materazzi who of course was the architect of this disturbing issue.Was Materazzi right to insult Zidane's sister, at least which was what he said? And was Zidane right to head butt Marco? 燴idane was wrong and his actions aren't justifiable but Materazzi deserves to be well punished for his utterances whether is against Zidane抯 mother or sister, what is wrong is wrong and nothing justifies what is wrong. His club and country took no action on his utterances, making him to be justified, the French society took it serious and many still hold Zidane responsible for the loss for protecting his mother or sister has the case maybe.The Italian society does not look presentable by celebrating Marco who couldn't act in a cultured manner byinsulting an opposition family member during a game of football, if Marco had been punished it would be a good signal to the rest of the world that Football is just a game but respect is not.




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