It comes only once after every four years; the grandiose festival, the decisive flash — the FIFA World Cup final.

As billions of viewers throughout the world just glued themselves to televisions, the 69000 ultra-vocal fans greeted the 2006 World Cup finalists — Italy and France — at Berlin’s state-of-the-art Olympic Stadium last Sunday.

Naturally, the tournament’s climax came out to be a cracker of a contest. As the French took an early lead through a penalty in the seventh minute, the Italians, while reacting very swiftly, came back strongly to level the score. As both the teams tried their best to overtake each other with the Italians having a slightly upper hand, the first half came to an exciting end with a 1-1 scoreline.

After the breather, the French responded impressively, attacking the Italian goalpost time and again with Thierry Henry and Frank Ribery frequently threatening Fabio Cannavaro and company to make it 2-1 for France. But with slight yet decisive lack of finishing coupled with some solid defence from the Italians the 1-1 scoreline remained unchanged till the 90th minute.

With the excitement reaching its peak, France kept their domination in the extra time too, coming close to take the lead again and again. Some dangerous counterattacks came from the Italians too, but even those could not disturb the scorers till the end of the 120th minute.

As fate of both the teams was now to be decided by the penalty kicks, the ‘painful penalty kicks’, the thrill took a new, or rather the final dimension — the penalty kicks. These penalties, being very much a touch and go business, the luck bestowed upon Italy as David Trezeguet missed a kick, and so France had to pay the ‘very final penalty’.

The 2006 football World Cup party is now over with Italy clinching the world championship for the fourth time, having claimed it in 1934, 1938 and 1982.

Still, one major matter is left to be decided, the matter which was a surprising part of the all-important final. Yes, media channels have been giving almost equivalent significant, to the July 9, 2006 on-field incident involving Italian defender Marco Materazzi and French captain Zinedine Yazid Zidane, which they have been dedicating to the game-related stories.

The phenomenal praise the Marseille-born Zidane, popularly nicknamed as ‘Zizou’, got from the French public and the President Jacques Chirac even after failing to win the Berlin final, clearly indicates that he has the charisma, a unique and may be inexplicable but visible charisma.

After following his normal conduct in the 109 testing minutes of the Berlin grand finale, one was just stumped, annoyed, angered, confused and, and what not... to see Zidane, the 2006 FIFA Golden Ball winner, hitting Materazzi’s chest with his head. Just before Zidane hit Materazzi’s chest, the two players had exchanged some words.

Five minutes earlier, the French skipper had attempted a swashbuckling head only to see a highly agile goal-keeper Gianluigi Buffon saving Italy from a probable and eventual disaster.

Immediately after the incident, several Italian players demanded an action against Zidane.

The Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo consulted the matter with one of the linesmen before showing red-card to Zidane who went off the field, leaving France’s World Cup victory chances in the balance. Being one of the best midfielders in the world, Zidane could give France the winning lead had he been there on the field for the final ten minutes of the extra time. In his absence, France also lost a world-class penalty scorer for the final shootout. With Henry also having been substituted lately, France dearly missed another wonderful penalty goal scorer.

Now ‘the most asked’ question is: Why did Zidane do it? In his interview with French TV channel Canal Plus, after the World Cup, Zidane said, "He (Materazzi) pronounced very tough words about my mother and my sister. I tried not to listen to him but kept repeating them."

Furthermore, adopting a graceful stance, the French megastar has also apologised to the children and the fans for his head-butting response, without regretting the reaction that resulted in his send-off.

Prior to this TV interview, Materazzi had also admitted that he had used insulted remarks.

So keeping in view Zidane’s word, one compels to think what one can do, if "very tough words" are spoken by any person about one’s most affectionate, purest and reverential relatives. Here one is not encouraging Zidane’s physical reaction against Materazzi as the "only option", but thinking on a wider scale, we should not forget that for many people in this world dignity and prestige have far greater worth than fame and title ownership; and one strongly believes the same might have been the case with Zidane in his brief clash with Materazzi.

Looking this incident from another angle, Zidane, after ‘sending himself’ out of the ground, blocked his team’s chances of winning no title but the World Cup! But again one should not forget that Zidane was playing his last international game in Berlin and so he could easily avoid any reaction against Materazzi, just for the sake of getting the World Cup. But the former Real Madrid celebrity didn’t even give due importance to this fact too, and in a moment of ‘naturally true emotions’, jeopardised his public image.

But indeed as the fourth official at the Berlin final, Spain’s Luis Medina Cantelejo said, "We should remember a player who was a true gentleman. He has never argued over decisions," Zidane’s personal integrity remains intact. Here one should not forget Cantelejo also stated that he had seen with his own eyes Zidaneís physical response against Materazzi.

And according to Thierry Henry, "If they (authorities) want to use video evidence (as used in the case of Zidane-Materazzi incident) it’s not for one incident, they should use it for everybody and they should look at Materazzi too."

So, being more ardent admirers of honour and prestige than being fans of fairplay, or rather ‘artificial fairplay’, one should recognise Zidane’s physical retort as a result of a moment of rush of blood, and nothing else.

Needless to say, it was Zidane, who featured in 108 international games, scoring 31 goals, whose intelligent and stylish play, steered France to the 2006 final, duly acknowledged by Zizou’s teammate Willy Sagnol. "We should thank him (Zidane) because if he hadn’t returned (to the national side) we would not have been there tonight (in the Berlin final)," Sagnol said after the final.

In the 2006 World Cup games Zidane remained the chief schemer, giving masterpiece passes from the midfield besides sprinting forward whenever needed. In the games against Spain (second round), Brazil (quarter-final) and Portugal (semifinal), Zidane was at his deadly best. Against opponent players like Raul (Spain), Ronaldinho (Brazil) and Luis Figo (Portugal), he had the clear edge, practically demonstrating his exceptional football skills.

In the final too Zidane kept on pressurising a very strong Italy defence by passing the ball beautifully to his forwards on several occasions.

Born on June 23, 1972, Zidane began his international career against Czech Republic on August 17, 1994. The 1.85m tall free-kick specialist played a pivotal role in his side’s maiden World Cup win as France stunned the football world by blanking the mighty Brazilians 3-0 in the 1998 final. Zidane’s twin head goals in this match are regarded as one of the best individual performances in the World Cup history. Two years later, Zidane also helped France grab the European Championship title. In the 2002 World Cup Zidane faced injury problems as the defending champions crashed out in the very first round.

In August 2004 Zidane announced his retirement from international football. But as France faced hurdles in qualifying for the 2006 showpiece event, Zidane declared in August 2005 to reverse his retirement decision, only to guide the French to the 2006 World Cup success. But the July 9, 2006 proved it was not going to happen.

Though France couldn’t win the World Cup, but Zidane’s exquisite ball control made him stand among the greatest players of all times. Football icon Pele himself emphatically endorsed Zidane’s greatness after France’s well-deserved win over Brazil in the quarter-finals.

The final too, in fact much of the 2006 World Cup, revolved around Zidane — France’s footballing wizard. From June 13, 2006 in Stuttgart where France started their World Cup campaign to the July 9 final showdown in Berlin, the talk was all about ‘Zenith’n Zidane’ — how Zidane can enable himself and his squad to reach the crest.

"We missed Zidane a lot in the last 10 minutes. His absence weighed heavily on the match," French coach Raymond Domenech told reporters after the July 9 final.

"Yes, we can say that Zidane being sent off was the killing moment of the game. Especially in extra time — the Italian team were obviously waiting for the penalty shootout." Domenech is perhaps almost spot on.

Every action has a reaction. It’s a universal rule. And what the living legend of football Zinedine Zidane did in the final of the just-concluded FIFA 2006 Football Cup, was a mere display of the same. Yes, the ‘head-butt’ from the ‘magical player’ was a natural reaction to the ‘very serious’ jibe from Italian player Marco Materrazzi, who along with Zinedine Zidane should also have been shown the red card by the ‘biased’ referee, who took the decision on what he saw on the pitch and ‘damned care’ about what caused that ugly episode.

As reported the Italian player used abusive language for Zidane’s mother and sister which is tantamount to ‘mental assault’ and in reaction the French legend ‘physically assaulted’ Materrazzi with a head-butt. It’s as simple as that.

However, the irony of the situation is that Zidane’s act of ‘physical assault’ not only cost his country a grand finale but also earned him bad reputation and opened a ‘Pandora Box’ of criticism against him in the western media, while the one who is behind the painful incident and the one who resorted to mental assault, has been showered with numerous accolades particularly by the so-called ‘free and anti-racist’ media of the USA.

The matter of fact is that any one placed in Zidane’s (the son of Algerian immigrants) circumstances would have reacted in similar manner to a similar assault on his/her mother.

Just imagine the American newspapers that typically bury "soccer" items gave front-page glory to Italy’s World Cup final victory over France, but stories also ripped French star Zinedine Zidane. ‘Zidane’s shame’, ‘Italy’s joy dominate US coverage of World Cup’, was the theme all stories revolved around.

Now this is something which exposes how prejudiced, biased, racist and discriminatory the west is in its approach to the east, particularly the Muslims, whom they accuse of ‘narrow-mindedness’.

It may be mentioned here that Zidane all through his career had been displaying fair play both on and off the field and has been termed as Mr Cool among teammates. While playing for France, except for minor lapses that are part of the game, he never went mad like he did in the grand finale against Italy and that too at a crucial juncture of the match when the match was equally poised. The fact that he was judged best player of the FIFA Cup 2006 fully justifies this stance.

One cannot even imagine a person of the caliber of Zidane playing the last match of his grand career and the winner of the FIFA Golden Ball award as also the outstanding player of the World Cup, would like to be sent off in such a dramatic way at a time when the World Cup Trophy was within reach and as a captain miss the final penalties shootout.

As reported, the former real Madrid Star, who normally let things wash over him, let something explode inside him, and was very disappointed and sad. He didn’t want it to end this way. It all indicates the Italian player deliberately gave him a serious jibe to make him lose control over self and get him out of the game so that they could prevail. It was a sort of planned ‘provocation’ on part of the entire Italian outfit, who wanted to win by hook or by crook.

However, despite the fierce criticism from the so-called ‘unbiased’ western media, who have cast Zidane as a villain and showered accolades on Italy, Zidane would continue to enjoy the support of football lovers. Zidane’s mark on the 18th World Cup finals will never be forgotten — for good reason. His successful seventh minute penalty for France against Italy meant he became the fourth player to score three goals in the history of the showpiece final.

Zidane’s early spot kick added to the two headed goals the French playmaker scored in the 3-0 win over Brazil in the 1998 final on home soil in Paris. Zidane also scored in France’s second-round 3-1 victory over Spain and he netted from the penalty spot in their 1-0 semifinal victory over Portugal.

To cap a vintage World Cup — until the final itself — Zidane, 34, set up Thierry Henry’s winner in the 1-0 victory over champions Brazil in the quarter-finals. The final was Zidane’s last competitive match.

Irrespective of the few detractors the world is united on revering Zidane and they not only forgive their ‘diety’ but also want strong rules from FIFA, the football’s governing body so that players who resort to provoking their counterparts with ‘foul-play’ are taken to task both on and off the field.

It’s for this reason that Zidane’s fans in a determined fashion ask FIFA to shed light on this altercation and that sanctions laid out in the official rules be applied should this be the case and if there are no FIFA rules in this connection, so it should form ones to thwart such incidents in future.

Had Matterazi not provoked him, the magician as Pele described him would have produced one last trick for France. The ‘old’ man was evidently enjoying his one last hurrah, coming off at the end of the first half of extra time smiling from ear to ear.

But then the red mist descended to turn out the light on a genius who has lit up France’s path to a World and European title in the past decade. What a shame for the so-called winners of the FIFA World Cup 2006. They have won the Cup, but not the hearts of the game lovers, who believe in fair play.

Even the football greats like Germany’s two-time World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer are Beckenbauer convinced he had been provoked by Materazzi. "Something must have been said to Zidane. He is actually a reserved and inoffensive person," the German great was quoted to have said.

The detractors of the three-time FIFA World Player of the Year in 1998, 2000 and 2003, should know that despite their attacks, tributes had flowed after his masterful display in the quarter-final against Brazil, when he eclipsed world footballer of the year Ronaldinho in midfield and glided over the 57th minute free-kick for Thierry Henry to score.

The supporters have known and loved him as a great player. He was something of a king and football and his name would go together for ever. One also wonders how come Materazzi has denied he had said something about Zidane’s mother, claiming: "I am ignorant; I haven’t said anything about his mother or sister." What a display of double standards and ‘innocence’ on part of the player of the so-called winners of the FIFA Cup.

Matterazi’s statement is a typical sentence which almost every accuser repeats in the court of law and in the case of Matterazi only poetic justice can make him face the music as almost the whole of west is with him.

To conclude, the game’s governing body FIFA should come to the rescue of ‘one of the greatest footballers of all time’ and take action against Materazzi for provoking a person to an extent to make him lose control over himself and getting him out of the game in a most bizarre fashion. It’s something necessary in the larger interest of the game of football, which is known for ‘fair play’.

The FIFA World Cup ended with many joys for a single country i.e. Italy and much more pain for the remaining 31 teams. The tournament throughout its span of one month infused fever and frenzy among the fans and brought about sentiments of joy and pain.

While many fans expressed their joys and woes, coaches stood the most affected. Many fans fell to victims of death, and the coaches resorted to resignations. Some coaches resigned after the mega event including the winners’ coach Marcello Lippi.

Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann, 41, decided not to renew his contract with the German Football Federation despite an overwhelming campaign from the press and public to convince him to stay on. Klinsmann spoke of the overwhelming pressures of the World Cup which left him exhausted and convinced him he could no longer continue in the job.

Klinsmann admitted the mental strain of preparing his country’s bid to win the World Cup had, at times, been too much. His resignation was by no means a result of failure of hosts Germany in winning the Fifa cup.

More than one million people turned out the following day in central Berlin to pay tribute to Klinsmann and his squad. The German Football Federation had wanted Klinsmann to stay on and prepare the team for the Euro 2008 qualification programme.

Italy’s World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi stood down from the job, however on a different ground. "I believe that I have achieved what I set out to achieve as coach of the Italian team," Lippi said. The 58-year-old Lippi took over charge after Italy’s poor showing at the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal where they failed to make it out of the group stages.

However, the matter was otherwise with the French coach. Though France could not win the final, its coach Ramond Domenech was given a new contract in charge of the team he took to within a penalty shoot-out of World Cup glory. Domenech took over as national coach after Euro 2004 in Portugal when France crashed out in the quarter-finals.

Coach Jose Pekerman quit as soon as his team were eliminated in a penalty shootout by hosts Germany in the quarter-final in Berlin, a decision that took Argentine Football Association (AFA) president Julio Grondona by surprise. Grondona, who has been at the helm since 1979 and presided over Argentina’s second World Cup victory in 1986 when Maradona was captain, had hoped the Pekerman era would continue and he may still try to persuade the coach to change his mind.

Pekerman was slammed for substituting playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme against Germany and for not sending on teenage hope Lionel Messi. He has also been praised, though, for giving Argentina back the respect of the football world after their failure to get past the group stage in Japan four years ago.

Sven-Goran Eriksson ended his reign as England coach with the shootout defeat by Portugal after failing to deliver the success his adopted country craved. In recent months the bespectacled Swede said he would be judged on England’s run in Germany, his third tournament in charge after the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. By falling for the third time at the quarter-final hurdle, when pitted against the same coach, Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, Eriksson failed to exploit the potential of a talented squad.

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said he had failed after his team had been knocked out of the World Cup quarter-finals by France. "I would like to thank the players. I didn’t do my job because my job here was to get to the final," he said after France’s 1-0 win over the holders.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari refused to discuss his future after a 1-0 loss to France which dashed his side’s hopes of appearing in a World Cup final for the first time. "I haven’t defined anything. I am under contract until July 31 and I will think about the matter," the 57-year-old Brazilian said.

Many lost their lives in different incidents related directly to the World Cup matches. The top World Cup official in Berlin shot himself hours after the dramatic final. Juergen Kiessling, 65, known in the German capital as "Mister World Cup", took a handgun to himself at his home.

Kiessling is the top sports official in Berlin’s government and was a World Cup coordinator for football’s governing body FIFA. He was responsible for the hugely successful Fan Mile in Berlin, where giant screens showed the matches to hundreds of thousands of ticketless fans.

Three Thai football fans died while watching the World Cup matches on different occasions. Two Thais died of heart failure while watching World Cup games. A 25-year-old man fell third victim to heart attack while watching the nail-biting final.

In a similar case a 42-year-old Chinese football fan, already hit by three sleepless nights of heavy drinking and watching the tournament on television, suffered a heart attack when he was agitated after seeing Portugal miss a goal against Angola. And there must be such a fear behind the signing of a one-million-pound insurance policy by a British football fan against any psychological trauma he might suffer if England made an early exit from the World Cup.

Although England was really ousted by Portugal in a suspenseful match, the policy however brought no damage to any party. There went all well with the fan and resultantly with the insurance company also.

In Burundi at least two football fans were killed and 15 wounded after a grenade exploded in a crowd that was celebrating Italy’s victory over France. In Port-au-Prince, the capital of Central American island Haiti, six people lost their lives when two armed gangs clashed for control of a generator to see the World Cup matches.

In Nairobi, two France-supporting Kenyans beat to death a fan of Brazil team after their ouster at the hand of France. The 21-year-old Brazil fan along with his killers was watching the match at a popular video shop.

It owes to the popularity of the game that the mass protests were launched against ban from watching the world cup matches in the capital of African country Somalia. The intensity of the protest resulted in death of two protestors. Hardline Islamic courts shut cinema halls and barred residents in Mogadishu from watching the tournament.

In France, four young French revellers died after more than half a million football fans took to the streets in Paris, Lyon and Zidane’s home city of Marseille to celebrate their side’s qualification for the World Cup final. An 18-year-old man was crushed to death as he tried to jump between the roofs of two metro trains.

A young woman died of her injuries following a motorbike accident. A 20-year-old woman was killed in a car accident minutes after the French win. And a young man was drowned after jumping off a bridge into the River Saone.

Up to 25 million people tuned in to watch the French side battle — the highest audience recorded in France since 1989. The revellers turned violent and the French authorities had to crack down on them, dishing out prison sentences to hooligans.

While Thailand’s Buddhist monks must swear off earthly pleasures, they were allowed to enjoy World Cup football because exposure to worldly affairs including soccer is beneficial for their religious education.

Fans in India’s soccer-crazy city Kolkata performed a fire ritual at a temple for their favourite team Brazil ahead of their clash with Croatia, while a football club distributed free Brazilian shirts at the temple compound to seek good luck for the team.

Brazil saw prison riots by the inmates who were demanding their right to watch the World Cup matches live. Angry Brazilian football fans destroyed a seven-metre tall statue of World Player of the Year Ronaldinho, who came out as a major disappointment at the tournament, following the national team’s ouster at the hands of France. The monument, made out of resin and iron, depicting Ronaldinho with a ball, was inaugurated two years ago.

Portugal stood out as a bitter enemy for the English fans after its team knocked England out of the tournament. That is why, England fans were shunning Portugal as a holiday destination, seeking solace from their World Cup woes. Portugal fell from fourth most-searched destination to 15th place of choice for the Britons.

The World Cup fever upset some other sports events and sportsmen. Germany’s seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher admitted the credit went to the German football team for his setting the fastest time of the day by a race driver during the opening practice session for the United States Grand Prix. He said he was thinking about Germany’s triumphant quarter-final match against Argentina, which was happening while practice was in progress.

Wimbledon was the ultimate loser when it coincided with England’s quarter-final match against Portugal. Its reputation as a bastion of English sporting tradition was dented when the All England Club quarantined itself from World Cup fever.

The millions who gathered to watch the match on televisions across the country, foiled the Wimbledon authorities attempts to turn their corner of southwest London into a football-free zone. Overall the football mega event downed attendances at Wimbledon by more than four per cent.