Why zidane headbutt

He had scored France's goal in the first half and our coach Marcello Lippi told me to mark him. After that first brush between us, I apologised but he reacted badly," he added recalled. I replied that I'd rather have his sister than his shirt. Zidane turns, thinks about it. The incident is passing. But not quite. Zidane comes closer. It looks like an excellent butt from a technical point of view: shoulders swivelling, neck wrenched, forehead rammed into the breast bone.

But this is too big to pass. The reactor core is open. And the fallout is already starting. Italian players are pointing and haranguing the referee. There are animated conversations, figures scuttling across the pitch. It takes two minutes of earpiece-clutching for a response to come. Zidane is sent off. On the touchline Domenech performs furious sarcastic applause. Zidane ambles past the trophy. And that is pretty much that. There are still two main mysteries here. First, why did he do it?

Zidane suggested afterwards that his mother had been insulted. Is it enough? Does any part of this add up? There has been so much noise, so much temptation to portray Zidane as either a fatally-flawed hero, a defender of personal rights, a human agent in a world of athletic units.

Really, though, the main feeling is one of crushing mundanity, of mild absurdity even. Is this really it? The second mystery surrounds the call to send him off. Lippi suggested initially help had come from a Fifa official with a TV monitor. This would have been a breach of protocol. The Fifa line is that the fourth official, Luis Medina Cantalejo of Spain, saw the butt in real time and told referee Horacio Elizondo through his head set.

The referee has even given a TED talk on this subject. Zidane head-butted Materazzi. When you see the video you will not believe me. Conspiracy fans will perhaps wonder why. Does it matter? This was entirely the right decision. Although, it also feels a little odd even now. Football changed in that instant: a moment of progress, but also of intrusion, a moment when professional sport edged closer to becoming an arm of our shared hour digital surveillance.

To follow high-level football now is to experience an endless loop, an endless argument about details. Some see this as a triumph, progress towards the elimination of error and perfectibility. This is perhaps the case. So to penalties. By: Sports Desk Updated: May 4, pm. The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.

Tags: Marco Materazzi Zinedine Zidane. Courage has no gender, be creatively courageous- Rouble Nagi. Made In Heaven. I wasn't expecting it in that moment. I was lucky enough that the whole episode took me by suprise because if I had expected something like that to happen and had been ready for it, I'm sure both of us would have ended up being sent off," the former Inter Milan defender explained.

He had scored France's goal in the first half and our coach Marcello Lippi told me to mark him. After that first brush between us, I apologised but he reacted badly," Materazzi recalled.

The late tackles, altercations and exchanges continued until minutes, when things reached a head.