FIFA may strip disgraced French skipper Zinedine Zidane of his World Cup best player award, the organisation's president Sepp Blatter has told Italian newspapers.

 

Zidane was announced as the winner of the prestigious award on Monday morning, the day after the World Cup final which saw him sent off in the second period of extra time for head-butting an Italian opponent.

 

Italy went on to defeat France 5-3 on penalties after the game in Berlin's Olympic Stadium was tied at 1-1.

 

FIFA has since launched an investigation into the sending off incident involving Zidane and Italian defender Marco Materazzi.

 

Zidane claims he was reacting to insults aimed at him by Materazzi and is scheduled to give his version of events live on French television on Wednesday evening.

 

Blatter said that before taking any decision on whether to strip Zidane of the best player award, he wanted to see the results of the FIFA investigation.

 

"It's not FIFA that decides who wins this award but an international committee of journalists," he told La Repubblica newspaper.

 

 

"All the same, the FIFA executive committee has the responsibility of intervening when it is a matter of conduct which goes against the ethics of the sport."

 

"That is why I gave the orders to our disciplinary commission to investigate what happened."

 

Voting by journalists covering the World Cup for the best player award is by a deadline of midnight on the day of the final, but most journalists submit their votes earlier to better concentrate on their work during what is the busy climax to the competition.

 

Blatter also said that Zidane's headbutt had shocked him personally.

 

"I've known Zidane for several years, his tremendous personality, the way he lives his life, his modesty and his love of his family.

 

"To see him acting like that leaves me vexed, both for himself and for all sense of fair-play."- AFP/ch

:cry:

Yeah I've already posted it in the Zidane thread..

Blatter obviously has no idea about Fair Play, he always blames the wrong persons..

Everyone gets mad sometimes.................maybe he was yet nervous for his substitution that Domenech didn't made.........

@Emilien:I didn't do before.........i want to thanx for your post to congrat with us.........:D

that's bullcrap ... :dozey:

he can't take an award away from somebody any more ... !!! :veryangry:

FOR FUCKS SAKE

this is pure bullshit. pure fucking bullshit.

oh this makes me so damn angry :veryangry2:

 

 

 

 

 

asdjahkja daaaaaaaaaah

i can't believe they would do that... fuck

this makes me so damn angry, i can't believe this at all.

fifa is more fucked up that we thought...

FOR FUCKS SAKE

 

this is pure bullshit. pure fucking bullshit.

 

oh this makes me so damn angry :veryangry2:

 

 

 

 

 

asdjahkja daaaaaaaaaah

i can't believe they would do that... fuck

this makes me so damn angry, i can't believe this at all.

fifa is more fucked up that we thought...

 

if they strip him of it, that will make more controversy than the original headbutting incident. what crap. blatter cannot strip zisou of what he truly deserves.

I'm just confused now....that's all!

 

Today in school we were talking about some rules of the FIFA......so that if a player insults another player the whole team would be suspended....this would mean Italy would be suspended....

 

I told this my mum and she also said that a woamn at work said this......

 

wow.....I didn't think that this thing by Zidane and Materazzi will unleash so many discussions...

Well the problem is that whatever insult is being made on the field, you can't PROVE it - that's why it will never be punished because so many people say so many different things and you just can't prove what has been said except the referee hears it.

exactly... :disappointed:

 

and as we can see, materazzi's denying everything already.

 

"whats this? terrorist? :thinking: i don't even know what a terrorist is! :idea2: :uhoh2:"

 

fucken liars.

hehhe...yeah...."I don't even know what a terrosit is!":thinking:

 

In school we said that he said something about Zidane's sister...

Now Marco Materazzi has spoken out in public, asking the FIFA to let Zidane keep his award:

 

Marco: Let ZZ keep award

 

 

HEADBUTT victim Marco Materazzi has urged FIFA to let Zinedine Zidane keep his World Cup Golden Ball award.

 

The Italy defender described French skipper Zidane as "the best" despite their infamous bust-up in Sunday's final. Zidane apologised last night after his red card for charging at Materazzi. But the midfielder, now retired, insisted Materazzi provoked him by insulting his mother and sister. Materazzi again denied today that he was the main verbal offender.

 

But he said of Zidane: "He was the best. He has won that award because of what he has done on the pitch. I have always admired Zidane. In fact I have one of his shirts in my closet - we exchanged our shirts after a Juventus v Perugia game."

 

FIFA have launched an inquiry into the flare-up that overshadowed Italy's shootout win. And FIFA president Sepp Blatter warned that Zidane, 34, could be stripped of his player-of-the-tournament gong.

 

Former Everton centre-back Materazzi claims he only gave Zidane mild abuse - and AFTER the Frenchman had slated him.

 

He said: "My only real provocation was to stop Zidane from jumping. Earlier, he had come close to scoring and our goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon had made a superb save. After holding his shirt, I wasn't the first to speak."

 

The Inter Milan star also rejected France coach Raymond Domnech's claim he had over-reacted by reeling around on the ground, grimacing. Materazzi said: "I could have expected a verbal reaction but not to be headbutted. It's not true what Domenech said, that I made a big drama out of it."

 

It's good that he says these things.. But I honestly don't know if I should believe him!?

i don't know... i still don't believe him... but i'm glad he said this, because maybe it will make fifa realise, you know, don't take the award of zizou...

personally i reckon MATERAZZI SPEAKS ABSOLUTE SHIT OUT OF HIS ASS.

firstly he dove- if you look at the photos frame by frame materazzi actually jumps, his right leg bends and he jumps and twists in the air off it.

then his comments on what he said to zidane are crap too if zidane said he would rather have been hit in the jaw than hear such comments i doubt it was nothing serious.

materazzi is a dirty liar and i hope he gets 'cleaned up' in a really dirty play by some little known player in the italia cup. he is also dirty for inter. its time for karma to bit him where it hurts.

Yeah, I suppose he only said these things about Zidane to clean up his image now.. To get away from his image as a dirty bastard who insults other players' families to get them out of the game..