France Sabotage Herself!

Guardian
London, 9 July 06
Guardian Unlimited Football
World Cup 2006
Final
Rob Smyth

Italy 1 - France 1 (5-3 pens)

excerpt:

109 mins: ZIDANE SENT OFF[...]! Oh. My. God. In his final professional match, Zidane had been sent off[....] He just rammed his head into Materazzi's chest; it was really firm and nasty. Horrible. Now that really is a headbutt. It was also completely off the ball and at first it seemed he'd got away with it, but after talking to his assistant - and possibly after an intervention from the fourth official - the referee was alerted to what happened, and sent Zidane off. He has always had a nasty streak, but this was just ridiculous. What on earth did Materazzi say to provoke that? Either way, it was a disgusting (sic), nasty, blackly comic headbutt, delivered with a Hitchcokian suddenness, and it's an unbelievable ending to Zidane's lustrous career. It was a JFK moment and a GBH moment rolled into one oh-my-giddy-aunt moment. And he could still end up lifting the World Cup!

[....]

115 mins Replays show that Materazzi's crime was to, erm, tweak Zidane's nipple. I kid you not. [Twit Brit TV announcer...] is now launching into the darker spots of Materazzi's CV, but he's a fool: Zidane is slap bang out of order, kinky nipple tweak or no nipple tweak.