I'm 100% a member of the "let's forget one red card; whatever the reason" club.

I don't know why he did it but I'm with Chirac; Zidane represents the best of France and he's a brilliant footballer at his best (some of which we saw over the past two weeks).

I quite agree it's very sad that he may be remembered for one red card in 100+ appearances for France over 10 years. After all if he really wanted to damage Matarazzi he would have headbutted him in the head, not the chest. Well done Zidane.

...Zidane was allways superb yes, but he HAD to leave behind a legacy for up and coming footballers, and he did not.
Had Rooney broken a leg whilst getting sent off after a paddy, would he have got an award due to his retirement? Of course not, and yet as an individual player, he will allways shine.
Zidane was a great captain for France and a true inspiration to the team with firm playing and discipline, which he lost.
That award must have been decided and scribed onto his trophy before the final.
I accept that it is a contact and aggresive sport, the individual performance trophy should have gone to the Portuguese goalie.
I also agree with Robbie that a head but to the head, would have been worse, but any violence is not forgiven in my book, and should not be witnessed by millions on a screen.

if he'd wanted to do real damage it would have been head to head... what did that Italian say? If as rumoured it was something vile about Zidane's ill mother, you can understand it... somehow I get very good vibes about Zinedine and feel, whilst he's had a difficult upbringing (I know Marseilles and that area of immigrants) he's a gentleman.
And I still feel that a career of utterly brilliant football cannot be erased by one silly move (and everybody makes them - even Beckham).

..having now read what was allegedly said to him, I am afraid if anyone said that to me they would have been smacked, although it would probably have hurt my hand more than them.
It is a difficult area in sport, which is usually referred to as "sledging", it has allways gone one, but would appear to be getting nastier.
We had a very long debate about it on a cricket message board a few years back, and whilst I was for it, as I saw it as gamesmanship, the majority were against it, and in retrospect, they probably had it half right.
As it was not nipped in the bud back then, it would already appear it is starting to go out of control.
Baseball has allways had it as well, and heaven knows what gets muttered on American football fields and rugby fields.
The last hockey game I went to, a guy was banned from the tournament for it, after only being on two minutes.
But then, do we lead ourselves down a dangerous route of a yellow card for an "F" word?
Sometimes sport seems to not be considered as entertainment, just sport. But of course it is entertainment, and all the paying public deserve a game with the best team or individual players entertaining them.
Nobody would have wanted to see a player of Zidaines` quality sent off on the biggest stage, however,ironically, it was entertaining to see the fracas.

Any business with million of pounds/euros/dollars/other currency at stake will be full of corruption, cheating, dishonesty and every dirty trick in the book to get your ultimate prize. Why would football be any different.

Whether it's punching the ball in the net, diving for penalties, getting people sent off, bribing match officials or racist remarks. It all results in success for whoever can do it the dirtiest.

This time Italy cheated to beat Australia
Last time a Brazilian went down clutching his face after the ball hit him in the knees.
Ages ago Someone punched the ball in the net

All those happened from teams who went on to win.
Make them all play for