ZINADINE Zidane - or 'ZZ Strop' as the Sun brilliantly put it - went home to a heroes' welcome in France and a warm official reception from President Chirac amid a maelstrom of contradiction and subtext.
There may be a compelling argument that he cost his nation the World Cup with his moment of madness but in France Zizou remains a powerful political symbol and a hugely popular figure that has helped unite a country with deep racial fractures. While he is an unimpeachable icon among the white French football going public for engineering the watershed World Cup victory of 1998, he also more potently represents the hope and pride of a disenfranchised section of society, the indiginous North African muslim population, the simmering children of former colonial subjects who, despite generations of endeavour, have yet to escape the ghetto.
France has this year been ripped apart by widespread urban rioting as the disaffected youth of that community have taken to the streets in an orgy of arson and violence aimed at the police. A mob who have been throwing petrol bombs and been locked in bloody battles are not likely to rush to condemn one of their own who lashes out on the pitch - especially if it is seen as an echo of their own fight for respect. And it will be.
In a bid to provide context and some form of explanation for this moment of jaw-dropping drama, the BBC helpfully provided not one but two members of London's Italian speaking lip-reading community to illuminate the build-up to Zidane's sternum-crunching header on Marco Mattarazzi.
Mattarazzi appeared to tweak Zidane's nipple but it was shrugged off then the Frenchman said something in passing although, with his back to the camera, exactly what remains a mystery.
Matterazzi then said: " No, you are a liar."
Zidane turned back and then said something else, again obscured from view.
Matterazzi then said: "I wish an ugly death on you and your family. Go **** yourself."
Zidane then gave Matterazzi a South Bank kiss.
Now, if the Italian lip-readers are to be believed, in sledging terms that seems fairly routine stuff. Alongside suggestions of sexual congress with the victims partner and slurs on his manhood those comments must be up there with the most frequently aired barbs that Zidane has had to deal with in his long career in macho football cultures like Italy and Spain. It is not tasteful but it is hardly explosive.
Newsnight went further to suggest a series of other possible flashpoints, although Paxo's lads didn't have anything as sexy and conclusive as partisan lip-readers to back up their assertions that Zidane flipped after being hit with a derogatory string of complex and sometimes Franco-specific insults.
First they claimed - via sources close to the French squad, naturally - that Mattarazzi had called Zidane 'a dirty Arab terrorist' , a jibe that is staple racist terminolgy across post 9-11 Europe and is particularly strong currency in Madrid, where avowedly apolitical Zidane plays, after the carnage of the devastating railway bombs there. But Zidane is not an arab, he is a berber and even found himself caught up in an anti-arab race storm after his red card for stamping on a Saudi Arabia player in 1998 was hi-jacked by extreme elements in North African politics.
Newsnight also suggested Matarazzi may have accused Zidane of being an 'harki'. This is a highly-charged pejorative heavy with dark intent and one that scratches the still festering wound of the brutal French war in Algeria. Harki was the term given to Algerian collaborators who fought with the colonial forces against their own people and one that has been used against Zidane before. In his bristling attack in the multi-ethnic World Cup winning team Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the Front National, said if Zidane was acceptable to the French it was only because his father had been a harki. It was an insult calculated to hurt Zidane, shame his father and undermine him within his own community and if anything was just cause for a thundering head-butt that was it.
But it is also an esoteric term specific to French discourse and to suggest that Mattarazzi is familiar with the slang of the Parisian political gutter is to ascribe an intellectual status and cultural awareness not immediately apparent as he defender was being sent off three times in 29 games for Everton. If that provocative word was aimed at Zidane then Italy really have done their homework.
Of course, that is not beyond the realms of possibility. Mattarazzi has been involved in a similar off the ball lid- flipping incident before. In a crucial, group deciding Euro 2004 qualifier with Wales the ball was down the other end when Craig Bellamy - admittedly not the most mild mannered of football folk - suddenly threw a punch at the defender and sent him flying in full view of the linesman. Bellamy was shown a red card and had to be dragged off the pitch before he spontaneously combusted. It was suggested at the time Mattarazzi had called him a no-necked Gollum pit pony botherer... although with no lip readers on hand that was never confirmed.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »