A matter of honor

One explanation for Zizou’s violent response:

As L’Equipe summed up the moment of madness with a headline of “Regrets Éternels”, a day of endless questioning began. With many conflicting versions of events circling on the internet and in the world’s media, The Times enlisted the help of an expert lip reader, Jessica Rees, to determine the precise nature of the dialogue that caused Zidane to react in such a manner.

After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure, supporting the natural assumption that the Frenchman must have been grievously insulted.

I don’t think simply quoting the old “sticks and stones” canard will serve terribly well when you’re dealing with a culture that encompasses honor killing. I’m not saying that Zidane subscribes to honor killing, only that it is unreasonable to expect him to ignore such an insult to a woman of his family in the same manner that a properly educated American individual of the male gender who doesn’t even recognize the concept of family, let alone honor, would disregard it.

I have no doubt that Materazzi purposefully tried to set off Zidane – who besides being a great artisan of the sport, also happens to be a notorious hothead as all of his former teammates at Juventus well knew – as Materazzi’s ludicrous insistence that he doesn’t know what the word “terrorist” means is a dead giveaway of his own culpability. Zidane deserved the red, as no doubt even he agrees, but if Materazzi is proven to have attempted to incite him in this way*, his despicable practice of furbo on FIFA’s greatest stage should be punished harshly with a one-year ban from international football for the good of the game.

Anything less is simply asking for trouble in a sport that features teams from many Islamic cultures. It’s well and good to say that players shouldn’t react to provocation, but I see no reason why such intentional provocation should be permitted in the first place.

*I suspect there is a good chance that the lip reader is probably correct. Zidane played in Italy for six years and speaks Italian, and “figlio della puttana terrorista” is not only short enough to have been said during the brief exchange, but would not be particularly difficult to discern on the video. It is also similar to the “dirty terrorist” reports that first surfaced after the game. Keep in mind that the word translated as “dirty” is actually “sporco”, which is much more offensive when used as an adjectival insult in Italian than it is in English. A less literal, more accurate translation of the reported phrase would be “motherfucking terrorist”.

UPDATE: The Corriere della Sera has it differently:

Quello che è accaduto al terzo minuto del secondo tempo supplementare non è però un mistero. Almeno secondo i brasiliani di Tv Globo. Loro hanno scoperto in fretta la verità consultando alcuni esperti che hanno letto il labiale del difensore italiano. «Prostituta» per due volte, avrebbe detto Materazzi a Zidane riferendosi a Lila, la sorella del giocatore. Non contenti, i brasiliani hanno aggiunto che Materazzi avrebbe insultato Zidane con «alcuni epiteti non riferibili». Il difensore avrebbe confermato la versione dell’insulto alla sorella del campione francese a qualche suo compagno. «Qualunque cosa Marco abbia detto a Zidane è meno grave della reazione del francese», fa sapere il capitano Fabio Cannavaro.

Translation: “That which happened in the third minute of the second half of extra time, however, is not a mystery. At least not according to the Brazilian TV Globo. They quickly discovered the truth after consulting with some experts who read the lips of the Italian defender. Materazzi said “prostitute” twice to Zidane, referring to Lila, the sister of the player. Unhappily, the Brazilians added that Materazzi then insulted Zidane with “other unprintable words”. [Most likely “va fanculo”, or “fuck off” if the English got that right – VD.] The defender has confirmed that version of the insult to the sister of the French champion to one of his friends. ‘Whatever Marco said to Zidane is less serious than the reaction of the Frenchman’, said [Italy] captain Fabio Cannavaro.”

I still suspect the English have the correct version, as Materazzi’s silly-sounding comment is fairly typical of an Italian confirmation by denial. But regardless, we’ll find out from Zidane himself soon enough.