An Apology for Materazzi (but not from Zidane)

By: Laurie | April 9th, 2008

Over on my France page, I have a commenter who stops by every month or so to ask, “Has Zidane apologized to Materazzi yet?”

I used to respond, but now I just kind of ignore it. Because the answer will never change. And that answer is: “Not in this lifetime.” Love him or hate him, Zidane is who he is, and he responded to circumstances in the only way he was capable of, and that apology ain’t gonna happen.

But Materazzi has at last received not just an apology, but “substantial damages and his legal costs.” Not from Zidane. (Oh, please.) But from the Daily Star, which has offered a settlement and a public apology for alleging that the headbutt was the result of Materazzi’s racial abuse.

Materazzi’s counsel Jane Phillips told the hearing: “In (post-match) articles the defendant (Daily Star) stated, quite wrongly, that the claimant (Materazzi) had used vile racist abuse during the World Cup final, including calling the mother of his opponent, Zinedine Zidane, a ‘terrorist whore’, thus goading Zidane into losing his temper and causing Zidane to head-butt the claimant.

“The defendant accepts these allegations are wholly untrue and that there is no question of the claimant having said anything of a racist nature to Zidane whatsoever…”

We can debate forever on what happened that day and why. (My opinion? It wasn’t the sister insult that caused it. It was the purple nurple.) If you’re a Matrix fan, you and I will never see eye to eye. But I never, ever believed the “son of a terrorist whore” rumors. It’s not in his personality. Materazzi deserves a lot of things, but he didn’t deserve that. The settlement is just.

But Marco? By the way? I think Shevchenko’s jewels are still waiting for their own apology.

(Hat tip to Molto Calcio.)

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And by the way, I am rather thrilled by this news, because it gives me the opportunity to post one of my favorite videos of all time, the Coup de Boule (headbutt) Song. (Just a teeny bit PG-13, so don’t watch with your boss looking over your shoulder.) Link to French lyrics and English translation here.