Brad

I was looking through Jazzmatazz this morning and noticed that there are basically no weekly updates for the rest of the year. Any idea of what's going on?

FIFA have announced that they are opening an investigation (FWIW) into the red card. I presume they're doing this in light of Materazzi's admission that he did insult Zidane.

In today's BBC: Italy defender Marco Materazzi says he did insult France's Zinedine Zidane during the World Cup final, just before Zidane was sent off for a headbutt. But Materazzi denied reports he called Zidane a "terrorist" or used insulting language towards Zidane's mother. "It was the kind of insult you will hear dozens of times and just slips out of the ground," Materazzi is quoted in Italian paper La Gazetta dello Sport. "I didn't call Zidane a terrorist and certainly didn't mention his mother." Zidane looked at me with super arrogance... it's true I shot back with an insult Marco Materazzi Zidane, who was born and grew up in Marseille, is the son of Algerian immigrants and has suffered taunts about his heritage throughout his football career. But Materazzi added: "I am ignorant, I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is; my only terrorist is her," he said pointing to his 10-month-old daughter. "I did not bring up Zidane's mother; for me a mother is sacred." Materazzi and Zidane became involved in a verbal spat with 10 minutes to go in extra-time with France and Italy drawing 1-1 in the World Cup final. After Materazzi's insult Zidane shoved his head into the Italian's chest and was sent off, with Italy going on to win the match 5-3 on penalties. "I held his shirt, for only a few seconds," said Materazzi, who had scored Italy's equaliser after Zidane put France ahead from the penalty spot. "He turned towards me and scoffed at me, looking at me with super arrogance, up and down. "He said 'if you really want my shirt, you can have it later.' "It's true, I shot back with an insult." Just what did Materazzi say to provoke this reaction from Zidane? Media organisations across Europe have been trying to decipher what Materazzi said to provoke such an extreme reaction from Zidane. But it remains unclear exactly what was said and the BBC has broadcast two different versions. BBC Radio Five Live asked for help from a deaf lip reader, Jessica Rees, who read the words phonetically to an Italian translator. She deciphered the insult as being "you're the son of a terrorist whore" - a translation also carried by many national newspapers in Britain on Tuesday. The BBC's Ten O'Clock News also called in experts to study the television footage of the incident and determined the following: Materazzi's first word to Zidane was "no" before he then told him to "calm down". He then accused him of being a "liar" and wished "an ugly death to you and your family" on the day the Frenchman's mother had been taken to hospital ill. This was followed by "Go f*** yourself". Zidane's agent, Alain Migliaccio, has hinted that Zidane will soon reveal exactly what was said by Materazzi. Piara Powar, national co-ordinator for the anti-racism group Kick It Out told Five Live, said: "If there was a racial slur then Fifa needs to act." Keith Hackett, head of referees in England, said that if it can be proved that Matterazzi racially abused the Frenchman, then Fifa should take retrospective action for "the good of the game."

17. Sheez. I'm closer to 71 than to 17. Oh, god don't remind me. Anyway, happy birthday, kitty

This is something we can all enjoy. I just heard that Portugal was voted the most entertaining team of this World Cup Aye, that they were.

When they write the history of football and look at the pantheon of heroes, Zidane's will rank up with the great names (although slightly tarnished by this incident) whereas Matarazzi will only be remembered for his one goal and his attempts to bring Zidane down. I would agree EXCEPT that this isn't the first time Zidane has done something like this. Admittedly, I'm not the world's biggest football fan, but isn't this the same player that stomped on another player in '98? This is obviously someone who has issues, not someone who accidently lost it one time... Yes, he did that and under circumstances he won't discuss. However, that didn't diminish his stature. Saying he has issues is a little strong. Contrary to what most Americans think, this is a tough game and things happen out there, as we've seen from this match and others. I will never forget some of the things he did out there such as beat Brasil in 98 and the rocket he fired past Bayer Leverkusen to win the Champions League for Real Madrid. Outside of the World Cup and the European Championship, that is the most prestigious title there is and in the world of club football (as opposed to national teams), that is THE title.

When they write the history of football and look at the pantheon of heroes, Zidane's will rank up with the great names (although slightly tarnished by this incident) whereas Matarazzi will only be remembered for his one goal and his attempts to bring Zidane down.

Nobody is denying that the trophy is in Italy! I am afraid ' winning at all cost' is not my motto. If winning is everything to you and if you are happy with this scenario, whatever Materazzi said, I don't envy your life and your world cup! I am sure I won't be the only board member to feel like this. Anyway, we are going to know much more about the virtues of Italian football in the coming weeks and a lot of the guys who won last night are very likely to be implicated in this scandal. But who cares? The trophy is in Italy!! A tainted trophy in my view.

I think this accurately summarizes the issues. Zidane had complained all night about these tactics. At one point he had to be helped off the field because it appeared he couldn't move his elbow. Gee, I wonder how that happened. Allegedly, Italian football had changed. I can't say I saw that as this side was involved with two of the more notorious incidents of this Cup: the McBride incident and now this.

BBC Phil McNulty on our Marco

Thank you for your great objectivity and contribution to this debate.

Those clips say it all. I saw something where his son gets abuse at school for the hits his father perpetrates.

I read where there was a fifth official in the booth looking at a monitor. However, he has no power to make any decision. I'm surmising that he looked at his monitor, saw the foul, called down to the fourth official, who then told the referee's assistant, who then told the refereee. If FIFA does not use video evidence, why is there a fifth official even looking at a monitor. To say he doesn't have any power to make a decision is not logical because he's relaying information down to the sidelines. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable with the FIFA rules can set this straight.

According to FIFA, they were sorting things out, that's why it took so long to eject Zidane. What a lot of crap. This is deplorable. Even Lippi said they were using video evidence. How can you change the rules in mid stream. There are a lot of things that go on in matches that refs don't see. This was obviously one. It shouldn't have been called. And this doesn't even get into the question of how the defense was manhandling him, nearly breaking his arm on one play. Matarazzo needs to be called to account by FIFA for what he said. This is a tainted championship.

I wonder if his father was a (first) bass (man)

These are all top notch. I would buy them all if I didn't already have them in some format.

I guess when you get down to it, Jim, the result of it all is very unsatisying, sort of like this whole Cup.

Not necessarily. A PK has to be awarded according to the subjective judgement of a man who may or may not even have a good look at the play. I'm just not yet convinced that the PK was deserved. I don't know, Brad. Was Italy's goal a "break"? Sure, Zidane may have made a difference if he'd stayed on, but nobody knows. France certainly played well overall, I guess I'm just trying to give Italy a bit of credit where I think it's deserved (at least to some degree). What I meant by breaks was Zindane's headbutt and Trezeguet's miss. Their goal was certainly not a break but a great header. Italy does need to get credit because they are the Champs. They won so that entitles them to the credit.

Your premise seems that they deserved to win because they scored a legitimate goal as opposed to the France PK. A PK is just as legitimate as a non PK goal. In fact, this was a more deserving PK, imo, than the one in the Portugal match. Looking at the game overall, Italy had some moments on offense in the first half but after that it was all France. They were constantly on the attack, looking for the tie breaker. They were making younger men look bad. However, not always the best team wins. You need to get breaks. Italy got them, helped by Zidane and they won. End of story.

Back to the match and the headbutt. This is what Domenech said, as reported in the BBC: France coach Raymond Domenech said the referee should have given Zinedine Zidane more protection in the World Cup final defeat against Italy in Berlin. Zidane was sent off in extra-time for a head-butt on Marco Materazzi before France went on to lose on penalties. "Materrazzi is the man of the match, not Andrea Pirlo," said Domenech. "When one has to put up with what Zidane had to and the referee doesn't do anything, one understands. You can't excuse it, but you can understand it."

What is your problem?? As far as I know no one mentioned any of those things, whereas your comments are rude and insulting. Actually I haven't got any problems: some of your past comments about italians edged the trivials commonplaces about us: 'divers', 'catenaccio', 'typical italian playing', ecc.. The party goes on right on so who cares... You've got to be kidding me. That's what you're getting upset about. Sheez. If somebody had said derogatory about the Italian people, I could understand your feeling upset but not for those comments about how your countrymen play football.

As far as Zidane costing them the title, it's arguable but he would have been taking one of the penalties so who knows? It's unfortunate, win or lose, that he went out that way. That headbutt will go down in World Cup lore and provoke unceasing debate as to whether France would have won or lost had he not done that.

I said they didn't deserve it because France played much better over the whole game and you can't deny that. I'm not looking down on you or Italy just looking at who played better. However, as we all know just because you play better doesn't guarantee a win and that's what happened here.

They didn't deserve it but that's irrelevant. They're the Champions. Zidane's headbutt may have cost them the title.