Zidane headbutted Italian xenophobic provincialism Thinking back with fondness on Zinadine Zidane. We talk of the rise of the BNP in Britain, but in Spain and Italy fascism was popular from the start and it still is. Real Madrid has a hardcore group of Franco Fascist supporters and A. C. Milan, Berlusconi's club, has a hard core group of Mussolini style fascist supporters too. In the light of this Zinadine Zidane's head-butt was a heroic attack on racism in Italian football. Whether the comment referred to his sister or directly to his race, it was a racist attack on a Frenchman of Algerian origin - after Pele, and Maradona, the greatest who has played the game. Sometimes you can't fight racism with words, you have to fight it, well, with fighting. Zinadine had a choice: Let that offensive comment go by, or roll his courage into a ball. Zinadine, always the gentleman, lost his rag, and if Zinadine lost his rag, then it deserved to be lost. Marco Materazzi went down . ...
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head