Former France captain Zinedine Zidane and Italy defender Marco Materazzi were both fined and banned by Fifa on Thursday after the headbutting incident that marred the World Cup final on July 9.
Zidane, who has retired as a player, was fined $6 014 and handed a three-match ban by Fifa’s five-man disciplinary committee following his red card for headbutting Materazzi.
As he is no longer a player, he offered to undertake three days of community service on Fifa’s behalf, which the committee accepted.
The Italian defender, who admitted insulting Zidane, provoking the Frenchman’s headbutt, was handed a two-match ban and fined $4 010. He attended a hearing last Friday.
The bans apply to international competitive matches, even though it is a symbolic ban for Zidane who has confirmed he has no intention of reversing his decision to quit the game.
Materazzi will miss Italy’s opening two Euro 2008 qualifiers against Lithuania on September 2 and, ironically, France on September 6.
‘Now Retired’
Fifa said in a statement: ”Zinedine Zidane has agreed to do community service work with children and youngsters.
”As Zidane has now retired from international football, the committee took note of Zidane’s pledge to do three days of community service work with children and youngsters as part of Fifa’s humanitarian activities.
”In their statements, both players stressed that Materazzi’s comments had been defamatory but not of a racist nature.
”During the course of their hearings both players also apologised to Fifa for their inappropriate behaviour and expressed their regret at the incident.”
Zidane headbutted Materazzi in the chest in the 110th minute of the July 9 final in Berlin and was sent off by Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo.
There was considerable debate immediately after the incident whether the referee had seen it or not.
Several minutes elapsed before Elizondo dealt with the matter and he did so only after Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon drew the assistant referee’s attention to what had happened.
In a statement, Fifa said the referee had ”directly observed” the incident from his position ”without the use of a monitor by the fourth official, Luis Medina Cantalejo of Spain”. — Reuters