{"id":128,"date":"2006-07-12T08:36:57","date_gmt":"2006-07-12T15:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gen-o.com\/blog\/?p=128"},"modified":"2006-07-14T15:37:59","modified_gmt":"2006-07-14T22:37:59","slug":"zidane-to-speak-tonight-fifa-may-strip-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/12\/zidane-to-speak-tonight-fifa-may-strip-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Zidane to speak tonight; FIFA may strip award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zidane will speak<\/a> tonight at 19:00 Paris time (2 pm EST) on Canal +<\/a> about the World Cup Final. <\/p>\n

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has suggested<\/a> that the organization may strip Zidane of his Golden Ball award as the World Cup’s best player. Of course, this should come as no surprise from an organization as corrupt<\/a> as Fifa.\n<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> Zidane did not reveal<\/a> exactly what was said to him. However, he did confirm that the insult concerned his mother and sister and was repeated by Materazzi. Although he apologized for his actions, Zidane did not regret<\/a> them after Materazzi repeatedly insulted him. Here’s a translation of Zidane’s comments: <\/p>\n

\n

“It started when we pulled each other’s shirt.<\/p>\n

“I said to him to stop, stop pulling my shirt – if you want I’ll change it at the end of the match.<\/p>\n

“He said words that were very difficult to accept which he repeated many times – they were more difficult to accept that just gestures.<\/p>\n

“It was difficult to turn away as they happened so quickly.<\/p>\n

“They are very serious and personal. He mentioned my mother and my sister.<\/p>\n

“He mentioned them once and I feel bad but you hear them a third time… these words, I would rather someone punch me in the face than hear them.<\/p>\n

“I reacted – it certainly wasn’t a gesture to make.<\/p>\n

“It’s true that two or three muillion people saw that and children and I apologise to them.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

ESPN<\/a> has posted a more thorough story about Zidane’s statement.\n<\/p>\n

Additionally, here’s a nice compliation of Zidane highlights: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zidane will speak tonight at 19:00 Paris time (2 pm EST) on Canal + about the World Cup Final. Fifa president Sepp Blatter has suggested that the organization may strip Zidane of his Golden Ball award as the World Cup’s best player. Of course, this should come as no surprise from an organization as corrupt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gen-o.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}