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Imagine Michael Jordan in his last game,
with the score tied in overtime, knocking out his defender with
a punch to the throat. Imagine Derek Jeter in game seven of the
World Series, at bat with the bases loaded, thrashing the opposing
team's catcher over the head with his bat. Our collective shock
would only be exceeded by disappointment. No one, fan or foe,
would want to a see a great player end their career in an act
that speaks to the worst impulses of sports: when hard competition
spills over into violence.
Now imagine if Jordan and Jeter
claimed they were provoked with a racial slur. Does their violence
become understandable? Even excusable? Herein lies the case of
French National team captain, the great Zinedine Zidane. Zidane,
competing in his last professional match, was kicked out of the
World Cup final in overtime for flattening Italian player Marco
Materazzi with the head-butt heard around the world. Zidane,
or Zissou as he is known, became the first captain ever ejected
from a World Cup championship match. The announcers denounced
Zissou for committing a "classless act and the French team
withered, eventually losing to a demonstrably inferior Italian
squad in overtime. The following morning the international tabloids
with their typical grace, gave Zissou a new nickname: "butt-head.
Less examined was the fact that Zissou was literally carrying
a lightly regarded French team to the finals. Less examined was
the fact that Zissou had been grabbed, kicked, and fouled all
game by the vaunted Italian defense. Less examined was the fact
that Zissou had almost left minutes earlier due to injury, his
arm wilting off his shoulder like a wet leaf of spinach. This
unholy amount of pressure is the primary reason the 34-year-old
veteran snapped and planted Materazzi into the pitch.
Now the great mystery is what
set Zissou off. What could Materazzi have possibly said to send
him over the edge? Answers are beginning to filter out. According
to a FIFA employee transcribing what was said during the match,
Materazzi,s called Zissou a "big Algerian shit. A Brazilian
television program that claims to have used a lip-reader said
Materazzi called Zissou,s sister "a whore. The highly respected
French anti-racist coalition SOS Racisme issued a press release
stating, "According to several very well informed sources
from the world of football, it would seem [Materazzi] called
Zissou a 'dirty terrorist'."
Materazzi, in an answer that
can only be called Clintonian, said, "It is absolutely not
true. I didn't call him a terrorist. Of course he didn,t comment
on what he did call him. Zissou himself has only said cryptically
that he would reveal what Materazzi said "in the coming
days."
Right now, we do not know beyond
a shadow of a doubt what was said but all the circumstantial
evidence points at least toward a variant of SOS Racisme's claim.
Zissou is the son of Algerian immigrants who has sparred verbally
with Europe's far-right political machine for more than a decade.
He is an outspoken anti-racist on a team that has defined itself
by its multiculturalism and stubborn insistence to stand up against
bigotry both inside and outside the sport. Materazzi on the other
hand, will be playing this year for the Italian team Lazio, where
his father was the former coach. Lazio's fan club, The Ultras,
are notorious for their Fascist-friendly politics. Lazio's hardcore
Ultras, known as the "Irriducibili," have members in
Italy's extra-parliamentary far right and try to use the club
to recruit. The group has frequently uses racist and anti-Semitic
banners, one time hanging a 50-foot banner that said their opponents
were a "team of niggers."
It,s wrong to taint Materazzi
for the actions of Lazio,s fans, but there is more. Earlier this
season in a match that pitted Messina against Inter in Sicily,
Messina's star African player Marc Zoro famously picked up the
ball and walked off the pitch in protest of the monkey chants
rained upon him by Inter supporters. In a stirring act of solidarity,
many of the Inter players immediately showed support for Zoro's
actions. But one opponent yelled, "Stop that, Zoro, you're
just trying to make a name for yourself." That opponent's
name was Marco Materazzi.
At the start of this tournament
I wrote a soccer column with my colleague John Cox, called Racism
Stalks the Cup. We expressed our concern that the monkey chants,
banana peels, and peanuts raining down on African players this
year would continue on the sport's grandest stage. This largely
did not occur. But then in the final act, at the moment of most
exquisite tension, it seems racism may have actually emerged
from the shadows. I, for one, am damn glad that when it did,
it ran smack into Zissou's beautiful head.
We don,t know with iron certainty
what Materazzi said, but if it turns out to be more of the anti-Black,
anti-Muslim, garbage that has infected soccer like a virus, the
Italian team should forfeit the cup. They should voluntarily
give the greatest trophy of them all back to FIFA as a statement
that some things in this world are more important than sports.
Racism will be the death of soccer if things don,t change. Italy
can set the sport back on course, with one simple, stunning gesture.
Give the damn thing back.
Dave Zirin is the author of "'What's My
name Fool?': Sports and Resistance in the United States."
Contact him at whatsmynamefool2005@yahoo.com.
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