Tuesday, July 11, 2006

what was fifa thinking?


head butting zinedine zidane was given the fifa golden ball (in effect the most outstanding player award in the world cup). a person who cannot control his head is not worthy of such honor imo, whatever the provocation, and whatever his past achievements. this award is for this tournament only, not past ones. that most votes were cast before half time does not excuse such lack of judgment on fifa's part.

great defender fabio cannavaro who certainly knows how to use his head deserved the golden ball not the silver one he received.

13 comments:

Keshi said...

for me WC means hunks :)

Keshi.

Anonymous said...

I think it was too late. The world pretty much knew that Zidane would be the recipient of the award - FIFA changing thier minds would have created another shit storm. Sepp Blatter is very keen on avoiding as many shitstorms as possible

Voice in Colombo said...

Here's a news from NY Times.

Anonymous said...

A very sad incident indeed. Esp. since no one expected such unprofessional behaviour from such an experienced player.

As for the Golden Ball.... well it was decided way before this had to happen, now wasn't it? As theena has mentioned, changing this decision would have been controversial on its own. It's not likely for FIFA to have done that if there's no exclusive line in the code that covers this issue.

I've read the speculations on what Matamarazzi has said... but they're still just speculation. Perhaps we might see some action as the FIFA investigation concludes. But what I think is that the French cap shouldn't have taken it to this level. There have been instances when worse things were uttered in a player's face and not all of them ended up as head butters. What about the professsionalism expected from a footballer of his calibre?

-ssk

sittingnut said...

keshi:
lol. you are right .

anyway who is your favorite ?

not zidane ? i hope.
or is it beckham?. yikes!:-(

theena
you are probably right. :-)
trouble with avoiding shitstorms however is that one can get bogged down in shit for fear of disturbing it.

voice_in_colombo:
thanks for the comment and information.:-)
he should not have got provoked whatever was said. and it was simply unprofessional. he should know better.

ssk:
you as well as theena is probably right about fifa and controversy . :-)
lets hope they do something to show their displeasure at the end of investigation.

agree with you about unprofessionalism.

ashanthi:
as is usual with you, you seem to be confused about facts. did you even see the match ?
who got a controversial penalty italians or the french?
and who changed the rules at last minutes ? care to explain :-)

btw nothing justify the head butt. if there was a racial slur he should have complained to the proper authorities.

as for your unwillingness to improve your comment intelligibility that is your choice. after all your comments will only improve marginally even if you did format them into more readable shape.
as for matchmaking, i am glad to hear the news i have become completely ineligible. couldn't have wished for a better result. :-)

Keshi said...

FIRST would be Beckham! mwahhhh!

And then Zidane...there's Buffon too and then there's Cannavaro and Inzaghi...hold on I need to write a book on this...too long a list lol!

Keshi.

SpectralCentroid said...

Errrh.. I don't think FIFA had anything to do with the golden ball as its decided by the vote of journalists. Italy's super defender Cannavaro had come second, whom I think deserves it more for all the fantastic work (well, also because I don't give much about french soccer). Some believe that the head-butting incident happened too late by which time most had cast their vote.

Its absolutely bull crap to say Italy didn't deserve it. Its France who got a disputable penalty which was barely converted by Zidane with his chip. Italy's goal on the other hand came off a perfectly executed set piece. France's shots on target were brilliantly saved by Buffon. (One of Azzuri shots was saved by the cross bar.)

As for the provoking, there are many theories as to what Materazzi said but the result was unacceptable from an experienced campaigner like ZZ. Maybe they should all get lessons from the cricketers :)

Keshi said...

:) Ashanthi.

Keshi.

sittingnut said...

keshi :
lol
better write that book.
would be interesting reading once i have got past first and second chapters :-)

spectralcentroid
good to see you again. :-)
agree with all of your comment.
only they should really change the voting procedure, or give the award before the final match without taking it into account as happens in most other tournaments.

Keshi said...

lolz Sittingnut awww meanie meanie...

Keshi.

sittingnut said...

keshi:
lol
i going to be really mean about your book.

Keshi said...

ohhh ok...then maybe I should keep a copy for myself only :):)

Keshi.

sittingnut said...

keshi :
no no you should publish it.
i wont be mean, i promise :-)