FIFA: Moral equivalency alive and well

So in the politically correct world of FIFA punishing both Zinadine Zidane and Marco Materazzi was a justified ruling today. In the sports world, this is moral relativism at its regressive apex. Zidane gets three matches plus a paltry 7500 EURO fine, while Materazzi gets 5000 euros and a two match ban (2/3 the penalty as a friend pointed out. Ridiculous indeed).

"It's scandalous to ban a player for having said something." former Italian and AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini.

"It was intelligent, measured and reasonable. It shows knowledge of the world of football." President of the French soccer Federation Jean-Pierre Escalettes told AP.

Besides this gibberish, would France have accepted if the tables were reversed? Would they have cared had they won? Absolutely not. How is this stupid ruling remotely 'intelligent?' Because it shafts Italy and essentially leaves France off the hook?

Ok, a few things need to be pointed out here.

1) Italy gets the short-end of the stick. France complains and manage to equate the physical actions of a selfish player to the lousy words of another.

2) Those who called that the only fair solution was to fine both and are happy with this only show their selective stupidity. First, there were no rules in place for such offenses to begin with. Second, this sets an automatic precedence without any legitimate laws to govern them.

As if FIFA does not always have enough on its plate regarding officiating. Are officials going to carry tape recorders on the field now? How will they handle every cry baby that comes up to them complaining about what was said to them about their mother? Will they be provided with proper resources to deal with this? Chances are the answer is no.

As I said before, I wonder if the French would ever accept such a blatantly unjust ruling. What FIFA should have done was let Materazzi go unpunished (since trash talking is not illegal. Or at the very least send a strong message that they would not tolerate acts of buffoonery) and warn all teams and officials that they were no longer going to tolerate this sort of behaviour moving forward. Seems to me this would be a fairer way to approach this. I go back to Francesco Totti versus Poulsen 2004. There, the Italians had no hope of getting a fair hearing from Sepp Blatter.

3) Zidane is retired. 3 games for what exactly? Whereas, Materazzi is still on the national team. This is simply unfair on the part of FIFA. If I'm the Italian soccer federation I file an appeal immediately. Remember, these two teams meet in September.

4) Materazzi deserves an outright apology. French players went out of their way to make Italy look like the bad guys? As it turns out, Zidane admitted no racial slur was hurled his way. Every single person who went on chat rooms, message boards and the like to insult Italy and Materazzi are eating their words for speaking out before the facts came in.

As for Chirac, let's just say I agree with The Economist he deserves a 'red card' for his overall uselessness. What the hell is a leader of a supposed world power doing sticking his brie infested fingers on such an infantile issue?

Well maybe it's not so childish. Get this, a lawyer in Marseille is going through with a motion to have the game annuled. How are we to interpret this as anything but France being poor losers? All this unfortunately over shadows Italy's victory.