Insults fly around on the football pitch, I'm sure Zidane, who is not the nicest man by all accounts, didn't keep his mouth shut for the entire game. You know it will happen, no matter where you play football people say things and I'm sure he has heard much worse things in his time. I do. If he is only human then why is he the first football I have ever seen do anything quite like that, especially in a world cup final? You don't think the others were insulted? The French team is virtually entirely black or arab, you think the only person who was insulted was Zidane? Also, how do you explain his previous offences. This isn't his first headbutt, the 98 world cup he was sent off after a nast stamp (on a saudi I believe so I'm sure he wasn't called a terrorist that time). The insult shouldn't be investigated. Is it only worth investigating because he reacted? You would have to be banning several players a game if we set these standards. Do you think players like Keane, Savage, Viera who live off of getting under the skin of their opposite number would ever get on the pitch? I hate to think how different all of this had been had the offender been English, I also hate to think where all this may well lead. This is getting to the extent where if I were Materazzi I would press charges for assault just to make a point of it. Zidane has shown himself to be a little man by not coming out and simply holding his hands up. There is no excuse, I don't care what was said. Think of sledging in cricket, do you think during the Ashes this winter (or summer depending on your location) that nothing nasty will be said. Welcome to the world of sport everybody, you can't escape the nasty verbals, if you can't stand it, don't play it.

Here in France only L'Equipe seems unsympathetic. Most headlines are along the lines of "we still love you", he is being turned into a martyr. Disgusting.

Exactly Abbey, things like that will be said all the time in football, no escaping this for Zidane, he should have been big enough to rise above it, or do what most others do and get your own back in a less obvious and disgusting way or simply say something back. Things like that are always said in sport, if you can't handle it then don't play. He's always had a nasty side, shame he had to show it in his last game on such a stage.

Even if he did Zidane was a fool and a thug. That sort of thing is so common in sport and to react like that is unacceptable. I fear that this may be turned into a sympathy campaign.

I think Owen would shove his goal record in your face and question exactly who you are to say that, quite rightly so. He has never been a failure. He has been success in every competition at every level he has ever played and his ability to score goals is just about second to none in the modern era, I'll wait and see how he plays once he is back from injury before I decide he is finished, as should everyone. Given his age and the great work of modern medicine there is no reason why this should stop him.

I would have agreed with you until Zidane's sending off. There was no way he deserved to touch the trophy after something that disgusting.

I thought it was telling that even Desailly on English TV and several pundits on French TV all agreed that it was a dive.

Have to say that I disagree with that. A good number of teams were up to tricks, not all though. Of course you can probably say there were one or two unimportant dives from every team, or at least players going down easily, but there were quite a few teams that didn't really do it (England, USA, T&T, Sweden and more), they may have broken rules, had players sent off, whatever, but they didn't cheat.

He is touched, but it was still a dive really. He gets a slight touch and decides to trip himself.

They've most all admitted that none of them played as well as they can, you'll never see a player say he is in an irreversible decline, he may as well give up if he believes that to be the case when he is only 26.

I was getting at the fact that the big names in the French team put pressure on Domenech to ditch the 4-5-1 and recall Trezeguet, he didn't listen to them.

It's a fun little comedy, not some deep drama, relax.

That's exactly what Domenech did.

Maybe he did neekoy.

I have never said anything of the sort, France certainly deserve no praise for the way that they have carried themselves during this tournament.

Certainly not leaving my building tonight.

Maybe should have saved that until after the tournament was finished.

The right team won that. Moment of madness from Zidane, he didn't deserve to touch that trophy. Lesson on how to take penalties from the Italians. Diving and headbutting, the world cup trend continued.

A great dive for the first penalty, good to learn from the game against Portugal.

Shows you how easily people can be hurt by fireworks.

Had Owen said this a year ago I would have thought of that as being fine, saying it during or just before the World Cup would have been wrong, just like I wouldn't want to see one of our players saying something before a big game.

Here come the car horns and the smell of hot dogs cooking in the street is no inescapable. Either way, win or lose, there will be trouble in Paris tonight.

For me the problem isn't so much what he did to Rooney, though I have little respect for that, but more the fact that he so regularly dived, that is why I would be so critical of him as a cheat.

Pires doesn't play because he wouldn't be selected anyway, while Guily also isn't someone Domenech wants to pick, with there being a long list of reasons why, which one you want to believe is up to you. Neither would have been professional, though I think speaking before SGE had left would have been even less professional.

I wouldn't mind a striker playing poorly and scoring goals like he has at Newcastle (when he has been fit).