I don't know why he did it. To cut through the clichés, he is not the only one who knows: I'm sure Materazzi has an inside track. And now Zidane is "vicious", while Rooney remains Cristiano Ronaldo's victim.
And the Italians have won in defiance of all the problems they've had at home. It's a victory for team spirit during all the investigations where the national team is blameless. Or, more specifically, where only a few of the charges are being investigated. So Juventus and the others paid to have the right referees assigned to matches. But what about the allegations that clubs (most notably Roma) ran brothels? That Gianlucca Pessotto, the newly appointed Juve secretary, fell out of his office window and just escaped death. His wife claimed he would never attempt suicide (he had nothing to hide after all) but two days later attempted suicide is the official cause and no further investigation planned, despite Pessotto himself not having been interviewed.
Earlier, Buffon's flat had been searched for something completely different: evidence that he'd won hundreds of thousands of pounds betting illegally on Serie A matches. There wasn't enough evidence (apart from phone tap confessions) to try him before the World Cup.
Meanwhile the manager is under scrutiny, because his son's players' agency in which he has a stake appears to be executing some dodgy deals; not least that when players sign up with the son they're called up by the father to increase their value.
Anyway, these aren't what's being investigated. It's just a matter of clubs pushing to have certain referees. The Italians implicated in such corruption have heroically overcome adversity, while Zidane remains a disgrace for his premeditated actions. All in all, last night was a victory for football and morality.
