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Soccer's world governing body has slapped retiring French midfielder Zinedine Zidane with a three-match ban for head-butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the World Cup final.
FIFA's disciplinary committee made the ruling Thursday and also banned Materazzi for two matches for his part in the incident, which occurred in extra time of Italy's 5-3 penalty shootout victory over France on July 9 in Berlin.
Zidane's three-match ban is purely symbolic as the Frenchman retired from soccer after the World Cup final. In light of his retirement, the midfielder will perform community service on FIFA's behalf instead.
"As Zidane has now retired from international [soccer], 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," FIFA said in a released statement.
Materazzi, who was banned for "repeatedly provoking Zidane," will miss I
2006-07-20
07:19:36
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FIFA World Cup (TM)