“He grabbed my shirt, and I told him to stop. I told him if he wanted I’d swap it with him at the end of the match. That is when he said some very hard words, which were harder than gestures. He repeated them several times. It all happened very quickly and he spoke about things which hurt me deep down. … They were very serious things, very personal things.”
— French captain Zinedine Zidane, speaking Wednesday on French TV channel Canal Plus, explains why he head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi. When the interviewer asked Zidane whether Materazzi’s insults were about Zidane’s mother and sister, Zidane said, “Yes.” Materazzi has admitted to insulting Zidane, but denied he said anything racism, religion, politics or Zidane’s mother. (BBC)