Materazzi: "I'm Ignorant"

French President Jacques Chirac bids farewell to Zinedine Zidane at the Elysee palace in Paris. Chirac told Zidane, "What I want to say to you at the most intense, perhaps the hardest moment of your career, is the admiration and affection of an entire nation, and also its respects."(AFP/Patrick Kovarik)
Reuters: Zidane apparently called "dirty terrorist"

PARIS, July 10 (Reuters) - France captain Zinedine Zidane was apparently called a "dirty terrorist" by Marco Materazzi before he head-butted the Italy defender in Sunday's World Cup final, the anti-racism group SOS Racism said on Monday.

"According to several very well informed sources from the world of football, it would seem that the Italian player Marco Materazzi called Zinedine Zidane a 'dirty terrorist'," SOS Racism said in a statement.

Reuters: Materazzi denies calling Zidane "terrorist"

ROME (Reuters) - Italy defender Marco Materazzi on Monday denied a report that he had called Zinedine Zidane a "dirty terrorist" seconds before the French captain head-butted him in Sunday's World Cup final.

"It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means," the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Materazzi as saying after the Italian team returned to Rome.

"The whole world saw what happened on live TV," he added.

Another cynical Italian ploy.

You can use this animation to give Materazzi a few more headbutts.