07-12-2006, 04:54 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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| Set Trippin'
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| Could Italy really be stripped of the World Cup?
I would find it hard to believe that they would be.. but here's the article anyway.. Quote:
Could Italy lose the World Cup?
July 11, 2006
MSNBC News Services
The door is open for FIFA to strip Italy of their 2006 World Cup title if Italian defender Marco Materazzi is found to have defamed French captain Zinedine Zidane.
In March this year the world soccer body FIFA quietly introduced new anti-racism regulations.
Article 55 of the new FIFA disciplinary regulations concludes that if a player "denigrates someone in a defamatory manner on account of race, colour, language, religion or ethnic origin" leading to the possible penalties "if any player, association or club official or spectator perpetrates any kind of discriminatory or contemptuous act as described by par. 1 and/or 2 of this article, three points will automatically be deducted from the team concerned, if identifiable, after the first offence. In the case of a second offence, six points will automatically be deducted, and for a further offence, the team will be relegated. In the case of matches without points, the team concerned, if identifiable, will be disqualified."
In the case of Sunday's World Cup Final, if FIFA find Materazzi did "denigrate Zidane in a defamatory manner" and enact Article 55, the only form of punishment available to them would be to disqualify Italy and strip them of their title.
Zidane is expected to reveal what Materazzi said to him in a French TV interview later this week and explain why he had such a reaction.
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