We sat, stood, leapt up, cried out in pain or with joy during all those games, which started off fantastically and then inevitably deteriorated to more and more penalty shootout finishes as the World Cup progressed, which is I think a very unsatisfying way of deciding the game’s outcome in general and the World Cup final in particular.
Most do agree with this except perhaps the Italian supporters... and who can blame them at this moment! I would probably feel just like the Italians, (or their supporters in the case of the Maltese,) if the English had won the World Cup on penalties too!
We supported our top teams, and then perhaps went on to support our second favourites, (or sadly to hope that our opponents, aka the Italians or the English, would lose in this sadly and negatively polarised island) when ours were eliminated. All those games, all those highs, lows and utter nerves, and we are then left with one enduring image of this World Cup – Zidane head-butting a player of the winning side Italy, just like the hand of Maradona very very unfairly decided another game in a previous World Cup.
Zidane was finally interviewed about the whole head-butting incident on Thursday evening, and the world waited with bated breath. Even the Sky reporters sounded breathless with excitement as they waited to air the translation of the interview being transmitted live in France. Don't forget that billions are said to have watched the World Cup final, and the head-butt is the incident we cannot forget.
We don't have even one enduring image of an amazing goal, (it really wasn't that kind of World Cup where you marvelled at players’ skills) or an acrobatically skilful dribble. We have only an enduring image of a foul and a big question mark as to what could have provoked it?
What exactly did Materazzi tell Zidane? Did he call him a terrorist or worse? What exactly caused one of the world’s greatest football players (always admittedly a bit of a hothead, as most passionately talented people often are) of all time to lose it in the final of the World Cup, when they were playing in extra time, 10 minutes before the end when the French were actually controlling the game as they were superior in the second half and in extra time? If he had not been sent off, Zidane would have taken penalties too, and there is no doubt that the result could have been different.
But Zidane wouldn't reveal the exact terminology of the insult, simply that the Italian had insulted his mother and his sister, an insult for which the Maltese language itself has quite a few colourful expressions. This has now turned the head-butt into a totally Mediterranean incident.
For all the obvious differences between North African Arab/ Muslim cultures, and south Mediterranean Catholic ones, they do share one thing in common. The reverence of the mother figure, or the sister, though Mediterranean men do not have the greatest reputation as far as revering their wives, girlfriends, partners or women in general go. A generalisation, which of course excludes the huge chunk of Mediterranean guys who are actually great partners, husbands, lovers and friends of women.
Yet the mother figure remains sacred in Mediterranean cultures, sacred enough to make Zidane lose it. As a Mediterranean man at best and as a cunning Italian at worst Materazzi took his chance when he provoked Zidane, and as a strategy it worked perfectly.
Zidane did apologise, as a father himself, to all the children and their teachers who witnessed the incident. He did say though, that he hoped the provoker would be censured too. In fact he apologised for giving children a bad example, and also to teachers who may now have to deal with this copycat head butt in the playground. However, he said he wasn't really sorry for what he did because he would not have done it without the provocation. He asked who was the guilty one – the one who provokes or the one who reacts, a question more of us should perhaps ask more often.
In the eyes of the law the one who reacts of course always seem to be the more guilty one. But I do think we should hear more apologies from those who provoke, whether this rude unwarranted provocation happens in 5-star hotels, or on the football pitch. Violent reactions are not the solution of course, but those who provoke should be made to apologise and should be punished and censured too.
I hope FIFA takes this into account when they censure this remarkable Frenchman, who gave us so much pleasure watching his truly outstanding talent, and who had his exit from football ruined by a very nasty, unwarranted and spiteful insult, whose complexity and intention we Mediterranean people understand perfectly! Is all really fair in love, war and football?
Bon weekend.