Why only Zidane?

. PHOTO: AFP

After the initial shock of seeing Zidane head butting the Italian player, I tried to figure out how could anyone in his position as the captain and in a game that was poised in a cliffhanger, could do what he did? He was tired. He was angry, he was not thinking right, he is human after all, etc are the reasons given in his defence. Maybe. But I believe, Materazzi must have said something outrageous and derogatory that caused such a reaction. Things that come to mind: could it be that Materazzi was trying to make amends for his team, as he had earlier caused a foul, which allowed France to take the lead through Zidane converting the penalty? How? Because he knows Zidane's somewhat hot headed nature. Maybe he thought that Zidane would do something foolish if he insulted him. How right he was! Zidane fell into the trap.

What could Materazzi have said to Zidane that would anger him so much as to head butt him? A racial slur? A religious insult? An abuse directed at his mother/sister? It must have been something serious. We await Zidane's explanation to his country and to the football mad world. But, has anyone asked Materazzi yet what he said to Zidane? Of course not. He is lying low and is shown to be the aggrieved party by the media! Whereas he is the original culprit- the person who was the cause of the whole fiasco.

Zidane and France lost everything. What has Materazzi lost? Nothing! In fact, he is a hero in his country now, and will remain so unless FIFA ensures that justice is done. Zidane has already apologised. Any comment from Materazzi?

There is a technical problem too. FIFA does not recognise the TV shots as a basis of any refereeing decision. In this case the referee was in another part of the field and did not see the incident. Neither did the linesmen. Two officials outside the ground did. Although the offence was genuine, it does NOT fall under the purview of FIFA rules. As such the red card was illegal. The television initially showed the whole incident with the referee in another part of the field. Then seizing the chance to defame and disgrace an Arab player, edited the shot. What it kept showing repeatedly was the head butt and immediately the red card by the referee as if the referee was there and had seen it all before showing the red card.

The World cup has become dirtier than politics. What a shame!

Javed Helali, Pflugerville, TX, 78660, USA

This is with respect to Zidane's world cup exit. I feel in some cases the media is not covering enough and I realised it after talking to a few friends and family members.

Few stats you would like to know.

1. Zidane is a Muslim of Kabyle Algerian decent both an Algerian and French national.

2. When young, an Algerian coach refused to take him in his side claiming he was too slow.

3. He is known to be a player with a cool temperament but he has had two incidents behind him before this match one was stamping a Saudi defender in 1998 and another in 2000 of head butting a defender while playing for Juventus (two of the few incidents) so the bottom line is he is not a cool customer as much we would like him to be.

4. In the world cup incident BBC and several other news agencies hired criminal lip reading expert Jessica Rees along with an Italian translator and after a lot of difficulty they came to the conclusion that Materazzi had provoked Zidane by saying "You are the son of a dirty terrorist whore". Other lip readers and analysts came to the conclusion that Materazzi told Zidane "Death to you and your family." Co-incidentally Zidane's mother was very ill on the day of the World cup final. Whereas, some other sources have said that as Materazzi was pulling Zidane's shirt, Zidane told him, 'I'd give you my shirt after the game", and Materazzi said, "I'd rather have the shirt of your wife".

5. Materazzi, on the other hand, specifically claimed on the media that he did NOT call Zidane a terrorist and that he did not even know what an Islamic terrorist was and that the only terrorist in his life was his young daughter. He did admit that he had insulted Zidane but did not mention any family member like mother or sister and that they were very sacred to him. He also said it was just another thing you said in the pitch and let it pass off, and that his motive was not to infuriate Zidane.

If Materazzi did not pass racial slur or if it could not be proven then everything is fine, but what if Zidane comes out and says what Materazzi said, and what if that was a racial slur. Can FIFA take such a big decision of taking away the World Cup from Italy- just as they have mentioned in their rules or are they too scared?

Mohammed Shadman, On e-mail