Tuesday, September 12, 2006

FIFA seeks truce from Zidane and Metarazzi


The infamous head-butt that ended Zinedine Zidane's glorious career ignominiously is still living on, or so it seems going by Fifa's president Sepp Blatter.

Blatter wants the two men to meet on Robben Island in South Africa, where Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid were incarcerated. Mandela, South Africa president from 1994 until 1999, was sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island in 1964 and remained there for 18 years.

This sounds a publicity stunt for Fifa which has declared South Africa as the venue for 2010 world cup. Both players have already been called up to Fifa headquarters, the matter has been investigated and both players have been penalised.

Zidane said on Sunday he had put the incident behind him after Materazzi admitted last week that an insult aimed at the French captain's sister was the catalyst for Zidane to plunge his head into the Italian defender's chest.

What more does Fifa want now? Instead of rambling on this head-butt why doesn't Fifa workout ways to stop deliberate provocation? After all the game is about playing football, not about getting under opponent's skin with repeated verbal insults. It is called cheating and it is no small disgrace that Fifa is unable to put its own house into order to avoid such shameful incidents occuring in a game that is intended to bring about harmony and strengthen relations between peoples of different nations.

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