Mon, August 20th 2007
In a bizarre mix of football and politics, Diego Maradona admitted cheating to beat England in the 1986 World Cup.
In an interview with Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, he says:
“It was too high for me and I stuck out my fist.
However, rather than cheating, it seems it was a statement in the fight against imperialism.
From: Maradona and Chávez laugh over ‘hand of god’ goal on chat show
Thu, August 9th 2007
In a BBC interview, Fifa vice-president has declared his dislike of England and how he will fight to derail England’s World Cup 2018 bid.
“There are moves to give it to England. I must fight that.
“It will be Italy, Spain, or even France who will get the World Cup if it goes to Europe.”
With no disrespect to Italy, Spain or France, but all three of those countries have hosted the World Cup since England, and must be less deserving than other European nations to hold the championships.
Warner goes on to claim that the Concacef should host the tournament, despite one his arguments against England being:
“England invented the sport but has never had made any impact on world football.”
From: BBC
Wed, October 25th 2006
Fifa has revealed that 58% of players who were given treatment for injuries at the World Cup turned out not to be injured.
From: The Sun
Fri, July 21st 2006
FIFA have announced that Italy defender Materazzi will receive a £2,170 fine and 2 game suspension, and Zidane a £3,260 fine and 3 game ban.
In choosing to punishing the ‘victim’ nearly as strongly as the perpetrator, FIFA have given players a who commit serious foul play a dangerous ‘get out’ by allowiing provocation to be blamed.
Tue, July 11th 2006
After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure.
From: The Times
Seems to be corroborated here: The Daily Mail
Mon, July 10th 2006
The World Cup finals can make and break reputations. Who has come off worst this time around.
Fifa says video replays played no part in France captain Zinedine Zidane’s dismissal in Sunday’s World Cup final.
Referee Horacio Elizondo acted similarly with Wayne Rooney’s sending off earlier in the tournament. He appeared to be taking no action for some time against Rooney before pulling him aside and showing the red card.
Zidane seemed in no doubt he was guilty. He could be seen taking off his captain’s armband some time before being dismissed, but put it back on after the thinking the officials had missed the incident.
Zinedine Zidane has been awarded the Golden Ball as the best player at the World Cup, despite his sending-off in the final last night.
Italy 1 - France 1 (Italy win on penalties)
Zinedine Zidane’s career came to a staggering end as he saw red for his brutal head butt on Italian Materrazi.
Sun, July 9th 2006
Five Italians, three French make up my team of the tournament. As could be expected from a team conceding just 1 goal (an own goal, at that) on the way to the final, the Italians make up the majority of the defence.
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