Materazzi Acknowledges Insulting Zidane in World Cup Match

As reported in Tuesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport, Italian soccer star Marco Materazzi acknowledged that he insulted Zinedine Zidane during the World Cup final. The insult was evidently strong enough to incite the French squad’s captain into head-butting his Italian rival, which resulted in Zidane being ejected from the match.

Despite the media buzz about Materazzi having called Zidane a "terrorist," Materazzi, 32, denies having used that word, telling the newspaper, "I’m not cultured and I don’t even know what an Islamic terrorist is." According to lip readers who analyzed video of the incident, the Italian defender called Zidane "the sone of a terrorist whore" on the pitch. An anti-racism group based in Paris had issued a statement Monday saying that Materazzi called Zidane "a dirty terrorist" because his parents had emigrated to France from Algeria. "I did insult him, it’s true," Materazzi told reporters, "But I categorically did not call him a terrorist."

During the final minutes of extra time in Sunday’s final match in Berlin, Zidane and Materazzi exchanged heated words. To the shock of those watching, Zidane lowered his head and rammed Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground. "I held his shirt for a few seconds only, then he turned round and spoke to me, sneering," Materazzi told the newspaper. "He looked me up and down arrogantly and said, ‘If you really want my shirt, I’ll give it to you afterwards.’" Although Materazzi did not elaborate on what he had said to Zidane, he did explain that "it was one of those insults you’re told tens of times and that always fly around the pitch."

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, meeting in London Tuesday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, told reporters that soccer fans shouldn’t condemn Zidane for his actions. "We are just human beings, our duty is not to judge, our duty is to understand," Bouteflika said. He added that he had sent a personal letter of consolation to Zidane after his humiliating expulsion from the match. "I yesterday sent a personal letter to Zidane in my name and in the name of all the Algerian people," the president said, adding that in his opinion Zidane is the best player in the world. "It was a letter of solidarity, a letter of friendship, a letter of consolation."

Bouteflika, who was in London for the first official visit to Britain ever made by an Algerian head of state, said in a press conference that Zidane was a footballing hero who had never lost "his human dimension." The Algerian president said that Zidane’s reaction to being insulted "could have happened to any man," and that "our duty is not to judge; our duty is to understand."