Do you think Zidane was right to headbutt Mazzerazi on the WC final?

Question

I'm wondering whether it was right or wrong. Calling someones family terrorists isnt good, but that headbutt wasnt either. Can someone help? I'm confuzzled!

Answer 1

That kind of action can never be right no matter what the provocation. He should have waited for the Tunnel and nailed him in the goolies with a few team mates surrounding him to hide the evidence.

Answer 2

Trash talk is wrong. We all know this. What do Zinadene's mother and sister have to do with a soccer game. MAterazzi clearly went too far. For many people those are fighting words. Materazzi was asking for it, and he knew he would benefit from being over the top with his comments.
Unfortunately for Zinadene the ref's didn't hear it. If they did hear it, I think a yellow card would have been given. It only stands to reason because you can get a yellow card for far less than cursing in soccer. IT is the policy of FIFA to yellow card a player for arguing with a ref. even if no cursing occurs. This is done so that order is not lost. If this is understood, then it should be understood that trash talking an opponent's mother and sister, so acerbically is also wrong.
There was a player on the Mexico team whose father died just as the world cup began. Imagine what would happen if players are allowed to call other player's dearest relatives anything they want. Can you fault a player for losing his cool? Trash talk needs to be curtailed. It is not part of the sport. It is part of behavior that is intended to hurt, insult, and cause violence. Of this there is no question.
Now under the circumstances, Zinadene should have kept his cool, and played ball. It is unfortunate that he didn't, but I can only blame him so much. He was being hit and fouled extremely hard through out the game, and the ref's did not seem to call any fouls. HE was definitely frustrated. The Italian team seemed to be trying to curtail his play by roughing him up. They nearly dislocated his shoulder. Play with fire and you get burned Materazzi.

FIFA will have to let the red card stand and give Materazzi some kind of penalty in order to show that Materazzi's behavior is beyond the boundary of the game. And they will undoubtedly need to address the fact that a team can pick one player out and rough him up. I want to see great players play, not get wheeled off of the playing field. The Italian team seems to bloody someone up every world cup.

Answer 3

If he was a 15 year-old kid in a street fight it would have been acceptable. Zidane has played organized soccer for 25+ years. Any talented player will tell you that they have endured trash talk at some point in their career. There is nothing Matterazzi could have said that could be so much worse than what Zidane has heard in the past. People need to look past the brilliance of his ability and see that he is a thug. 5 years ago, he was suspended from league play for headbutting an opponent. He missed France's quarterfinal and semifinal wins in '98 for stomping on a player. He has been red-carded 15 times in his career. This is not a freak occurence for Zidane. It is his character. A 34 year-old "professional" should be able to handle an insult here or there.

Answer 4

The way I see it is that Zidane is meant to be a professional, no matter what MM said he should have been able to keep walking, and to rise above it. I obviously understand that this is easier said than done but when you choose to be a professional footballer you should also act as a professional footballer, this means being a good role model to all those sat at home or in the stadium watching you, I think most of you would agree after the world cup final that Zidane is not a good role model.

Answer 5

It goes like this.... It depends on WHO headbutts WHO !! Actions no longer matter... what now matters is WHO !!! Figo headbutted the dutchee.... Figo was part of team the press wanted to brand as cheats (lol) and so Figo was criticised. Nobody lol asked what the provocation could be. Nobody knows what the dutchee said and who cares, lol !!! However, even though nobody cares about a muslim like Zidane, he was part of team the press wanted to win the WC so Zidane could therefore headbutt whoever he wanted and he would always be justified and excused by the press !! Noptice how Zidane's headbutt was 100x worse than Figo's

Answer 6

LETS LOOK AT THE FACTS - F.A.C.T.S

1- Materazzi said something - we dont know what
2- Zidane headbutted him in the chest: FACT !

Zidane gest sent off ! quite rightly....

Opinions:
- If it was someone else and not Zidane, there would not have been all this caos about it....

Come on guys, its as if someone insults Schumacher and he decides to run the person over with his car.... would you say he did the right thing ?

The man lost his cool, he is aware he did that, and now he is trying to make up for the fact that millions of kids in the world watched and LEARNed from that exemplar behaviour.........

I have never seen anyone physically hurting someone else and police not punish them just because they had been provoked.....

Lets get real.....

Answer 7

zidane was wrong to retaliate on materazzi in the manner he did. if materazzi had said something to zidane that was racist or in any other way derogatory, he should have went to the referee and let the officials decide what to do with the situation.

as a professional athlete, and therefore in the public eye, zidane should have kept his cool and acted professionally. especially since he was the captain of france's side, he needed to stay on the pitch and help his team.

however, i also cannot blame him for reacting. if someone had called me a terrorist, or insulted my family, i probably would have given the guy a beat down, like fists of fury in his face. but... i'm not a professional athlete on the biggest stage in the world for my sport. i guess if it came down to it, i would have reacted as well, though not in the same way zidane did.

on the flip side, materazzi had no right to say anything to zidane, especially anything racist or insulting to his family. i would be willing to bet that after the investigation is over, materazzi will receive a suspension from fifa for saying racist remarks, which is something fifa is trying to crack down on.

Answer 8

I don't like violence, I think it does no good but to make the 'aggressor, (it's debatable who the aggressor was) feel temporariliy better and is an escalation of what started out as name calling.
Zidane may have felt better at the time, but he knows he'll never take racism and hitting below the belt away However, as a demonstration of how he, and others feel, about overstepping the mark then he couldn't have chosen a better thing to do. Everyone will remember the event and the subsequently revealed, reason for it. Trying to give a speech to a packed stadium wouldn't have worked as an alternative.
Mazzerazi went too far with his heinous, odious remarks and so my answer to your question, on balance, is yes.

(ps. I wouldn't expect to get away with it if I insulted someone's family. Would you?)

Answer 9

I think Zidane is such a good player that he did himself an injustice to react in that way to the insult he was obviously given. He spoilt his world cup final by being sent off and couldn't enjoy the medals ceremony - receiving a silver is a big deal and he was also up for another award. If he had kept his cool, he could have met Mazzerazi in the change rooms afterwards and sorted it out then....

Answer 10

Materazzi NEVER say Zidane his family is terrorists!!! EVERYONE DENIED IT!!!!
oh my God! do you listen people? a Zidane's mate denied, Materazzi denied, Zidane never say something like that !!!
but, if someone say bad thing to you, what do you do? do you kill him? so you show he was right, he looked a kamikaze...
do you know how much hurt an headbutt like that in that part of the body?
he threw down a person high 1.90 meter!!
it's crazy, he GET WRONG, he's a violent person ...
if someone is so stupid to insult you must be superior, not worst!!

by the way...this is funny...different point of view :
http://www.bastardidentro.it/node/view/19172

Answer 11

No, he wasn't. The magazines says that Mazzerazi said bad things about Zidane's mother and sister. Of course the man got angry but soccer is a sport, he shouldn t mix things, he could have spoken with the other after the game, or he could have gone to Fifa's committee but in front a billion people, he really messed up.