The World Cup

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[Griffo]

[tec]

Got to watch the last half of the game at my new apartment. They have great cable and carried the game (s). Quite an ending!

[Marcella-FL]

Commentary from SI.com:

Picture this. Michael Strahan is tired of offensive linemen grabbing him, strangling him, chopping at his legs, talking never-ending trash, generally messing with him in fringe illegal methods and getting away with it. So he head-butts someone.

Will he get thrown out of the game? Probably not. He'll get a flag. But put him in the context of World Cup Football and the ridiculous grand opera tragedy it has become and he would not only get thrown out but a lifetime of greatness would be ruined -- at least for now.

Zinedine Zidane is not a flopper or a whiner or a moaner. I have never seen him pull one of those scenes from the last act of La Boheme, enacting his death tableau on the field after the merest brush of contact. I haven't seen him lying there at death's door while they go through with the most ridiculous of all dramas, the entry of the stretcher.

Imagine if the NFL were like that. Half a dozen stretchers called for during the course of the game, whereupon the nearly deceased leaps off it, shakes off the very fingers of the Evil One and trots back onto the field. Maybe Zidane was tired of all this, of this travesty, which rewards all the things that we were once taught were cowardly, but can be used to great advantage in this game.

So Zidane slammed a guy. He lost it. Writers all over the world are competing with themselves to heap scorn on France's greatest player. You know something? I don't blame him for getting sore. Almost every time I could find him on the screen, he had someone tugging at his shirt, tripping him or messing with him in some sneaky way.

The problem is he doesn't hit the canvas as the rest of those prima donnas do. So the ref must figure nothing is happening. Sure, he should have held off on the head butt, but to put the defeat of his team on his shoulders is a reach.

They say his magic foot would have provided the penalty kick France so desperately needed at the end. Did you see the one he scored in the first half? Guys like ABC announcer Marcelo Balboa were gushing about what a clever little shot it was, but hey, it hit the bar on top and landed three inches away from not being a goal. The one that France missed at the end was the same kick, only this one bounced just outside the line.

I'll tell you another thing. I just about had a bellyful of this Balboa guy. First he complains about all the flopping. Then, when France gets away with one to set up Zidane's penalty kick in the first half, he tells us that the guy "did a great job of selling it." Yeah, a great acting job. Accent on great.

It's like hearing Balboa congratulate a pickpocket for the deft way he lifted a guy's wallet. I love World Cup Soccer. I hated this game. I feel sorry for Zidane, who has a temper, just as I do. Or couldn't you tell?

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The Zinedine Zidane butting incident last night ended in a whimper rather than a bang. The head shot that was heard around the world resulted in a three-match international ban and a ?4000 fine for the French captain. The FIFA disciplinary committe later accepted Zidane's offer to work with children for three days, on the basis that as the Frenchman had retired from football the ban would be somewhat dificult to serve.

Marco Materazzi, who was the victim of Zidane's butt during the World Cup final on July 9, was handed a two-match ban and fined ?3000. He attended a hearing last week, but his sentence has been fiercely criticised in Italy.

The bans apply to international competitive matches, even though it is symbolic ban for Zidane who has confirmed he has no intention of reversing his decision to quit the game. Materazzi will miss Italy's opening two Euro 2008 qualifiers against Lithuania on September 2 and, ironically, France on September 6.

FIFA said in a statement: "Zinedine Zidane has agreed to do community service work with children and youngsters.
"As Zidane has now retired from international football, the committee took note of Zidane's pledge to do three days of community service work with children and youngsters as part of FIFA's humanitarian activities. In their statements, both players stressed that Materazzi's comments had been defamatory but not of a racist nature. During the course of their hearings both players also apologised to FIFA for their inappropriate behaviour and expressed their regret at the incident."

Andreas Herren, FIFA spokesman, said: "Both players have a congruent separate account of what was said. The words will remain private, but they were of an insulting nature, not a racist nature."

However Paolo Maldini, captain of AC Milan and former captain of Italy's national team criticised FIFA's ruling. "It's scandalous to suspend a player for having said something. It's the first time it's been done and it's only because Materazzi is Italian and because they wanted to justify the action of a great champion [Zidane] but who was in the wrong."

Maurizio Lupi, a deputy of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party also condemmed the ruling. "It's a disgraceful sentence that shows yet again how Italy's football federation carries no weight at FIFA."

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I'm quite amused by the fact that the Italian guy will in effect get a worse punishment... problem is that the first game he's back for will probably be against Scotland, and he'll have something to prove!

bugger!

[IRiSHMaFIA]

I'm glad the dirtbag was punished. They're one of the most racist lot of pricks and treat footballers of colour like utter shit, with throwing bananas on the pitch and making ape sounds and yelling out racial slurs. That can't be tolerated but I guess they think they're funny. It's also a way of throwing them into such frustration that they can't concentrate on the match and play up to their proper ability.

It really sickens me and I'm glad they had a special on it during World Cup just to show people how disgusting they really are.

Also:

Red cards out for Italy's cheats


From the top of the world to the dregs of the game. After winning the World Cup, Italy is now having to come to terms with four of its and Europe's biggest clubs being found guilty of match-fixing.

The scale of the deceit and the scale of the punishment are difficult to comprehend.


But the response to the sentences in Italy has been mixed.

A spokesman for Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian Prime Minister who owns Milan - which received the lightest penalty - said:

"This sentence on soccer strikes at nearly 20 million fans. Our best players will be forced to play abroad. Well done. Justice served."

Didier Deschamps, appointed last week as Juve's coach, insisted yesterday that he had not made a mistake in taking the job.

"The penalty we have been given is a big one, but we can only do our best," he said. "It is going to be difficult to get back to Serie A in one year, and it might take two, but even so, we will give it our best shot."

The scandal broke in May with the publication of intercepted telephone conversations between Luciano Moggi, the former Juventus general manager, and the Italian football authorities in which refereeing appointments were discussed.

Moggi has been banned from the sport for five years, and Franco Carraro, the former football federation president, for 4 years.

The view in the Italian press was that the sentences were harsh.

"Big blow" was the headline in the sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport.

Rome's sports newspaper, Corriere Dello Sport, said: "Juve pays heavily as they are practically condemned to play two years in Serie B. Milan pays softly as they remain in Serie A, maintain their TV rights ..."

The issue of broadcasting rights could prove troublesome for all four clubs.

Television companies said they were waiting for the outcome of appeals which all four clubs have lodged before they decide whether to renegotiate their lucrative broadcast rights.

The teams hope the appeals process can be completed by Tuesday week, the deadline for Italian football federation to submit its list of teams for next season's Champions' League.


Out and down - the penalties

Juventus
* The champions, relegated and 30 points deducted for next season in Serie B

Fiorentina
* Relegated and docked 12 points for next season

Lazio
* Relegated and docked seven points

Milan
* Docked 44 points in last season's standings, dropping them to eighth place and outside the qualifying places for European competition. Not relegated, but they will start next season with a 15-point deficit.

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French adore Zidane headbutt song
Zinedine Zidane's infamous World Cup headbutt has inspired a song that, thanks to the internet, has rocketed to the top of the French pop charts.

Just hours after the song's producers had e-mailed it to friends they got a flood of calls from the music industry and mobile phone companies. The hit was written as a "joke... to entertain our friends," said Sebastien Lipszyc of La Plage Records in Paris.

The small studio e-mailed the song the day after France lost to Italy.

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click this link to hear the song

http://www.laplagerecords.com/

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Chinese entrepreneur trademarks Zidane headbutt
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday August 4, 2006
The Guardian

A Chinese entrepreneur has registered the image of Zinedine Zidane's notorious headbutt as a trademark for beer and hats under the name Tietougong (Iron Head Kung Fu). Zhao Xiaokai, the general manager of a sports publicity company, says he is in negotiations to sell the black and white logo to brewers and clothing companies.

The trademark is a silhouette of the point of impact between the French midfielder and Italian defender Marco Materazzi. "As soon as I saw the headbutt, I could feel the commercial opportunities," said Mr Zhao, whose company is called Flying to Infinity Sports Culture Diffusion. "This was the talking point of the World Cup seen by billions of people."

Mr Zhao spent three days with designers on the image, which is in silhouette so that he will not be accused of infringing the portrait rights of the players or the national teams. After registering the trademark for beer, hats, shoes and clothes at a cost of 2,000 yuan (?150), Zhao put the logo up for auction online for 1m yuan.

He is not the first to try to cash in on the headbutt. A song about the incident hit the top of the charts in France, prompting some to question the morality of commercialising a violent foul that earned Zidane a red card and a lengthy ban.

"I know it is illegal and violent, but the headbutt was also a positive thing," said Mr Zhao. "It will make people remember the World Cup, it was a popular action in France - and even in China, many fans think it was justified after Materazzi insulted his mother and sister."

But he said he would not try to register the trademark in Italy. "That would look too wicked," he said.

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Probably a good idea - good luck to him

[faceless]

Here's another World Cup song for England that I just found..

England England, Uber Alles

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