July 23, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 26, 1427

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LONDON, July 22: Appropriate punishment or dangerous precedent? Marco Materazzi's two-match ban and fine for provoking Zinedine Zidane to head-butt him during the World Cup final drew mixed responses on Friday.

Many Italians were outraged at the decision, saying Materazzi's penalty was in effect more severe than the one handed out to the former France captain.

Zidane received a three-match suspension from FIFA on Thursday, but the punishment was moot because he is now retired. Instead, he agreed to work with children as part of a community service arrangement.

Both players were fined US$6,000 for Zidane and $4,000 for Materazzi.

Materazzi will miss Italy's opening two Euro 2008 qualifiers against Lithuania on Sept 2 and France on Sept 6.

“It is a dangerous and abnormal sentence (that) had it regarded an amateur championship and not the World Cup, would have ended up with five days of disqualification to the author of the head-butt and many apologies to the victim,” said Italian lawyer Mattia Grassani, who represented Bologna in the country's recent match-fixing scandal.

“Cases like this rewrite laws and create precedents that will force various disciplinary committees to call both players involved in provoking reactions and reactions,” Inter Milan president Giacinto Facchetti said.

Zidane was sent off after ramming his head into Materazzi's chest, knocking him to the ground, in extra time of the July 9 final in Berlin. Italy went on to win 5-3 in a penalty shootout after the teams were tied 1-1.

Zidane said Materazzi provoked him by insulting his mother and sister. Materazzi denied insulting his mother and said the comments were similar to those heard on soccer pitches all the time.

“FIFA wanted to find out what exactly led to the head-butting and during the course of the investigations it became evident, bolstered by the own admission of the player, Materazzi, that there had been a provocation, there had been insults,” FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said on Friday.

“And based on the disciplinary regulations, insults can be punished.”

Herren said domestic soccer leagues would have to determine if their regulations could punish players in a similar situation –

and what evidence they would need to do so.

“Any disciplinary committee in any league will have to rely on evidence before it can judge that,” Herren said. “There were consistent statements from both players regarding the same situation.”

Italians cited the case of Italy forward Francesco Totti, who was banned for three games for spitting at Denmark's Christian Poulsen during the 2004 European Championship. Poulsen was not punished.

“There was a discriminatory attitude toward Italy,” Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri said on Friday.

French Football Federation (FFF) president Jean-Pierre Escalettes said FIFA had set a correct precedent for on-field behaviour.

“In punishing the provocateur, FIFA has set an example even if Zinedine Zidane is guilty,” Escalettes told the federation's Web site. “This verdict is in the same sense as the FFF philosophy and can be used as a basis for work for disciplinary committees whether at national level or league or district levels.”

England's Football Association was more cautious.

“Obviously, we be looking to get more detail from FIFA about this particular case but we already have rules on abusive and insulting behaviour in our regulations and can charge for this offence if we have sufficient evidence,” said FA spokesman Andrew Cooper.—AP