Zidane/Materazzi severely punished by FIFA

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Zidane has been handed a 3 match ban by FIFA for his head-butt on Materazzi and has also been heavily fined... a whopping £3,260 for Mr. Zidane.... according to this website (that works out the total earnings of the world's top footballers), that means that Zidane will need to work for a full 37 minutes to pay this fine... although, to Zidane's credit, he intends to work out his 'ban' (since he has now retired) by doing 'community service' for FIFA instead... :)

Marco Materazzi didn't get off the hook either... he faces a fine of £2,170... :( No PS3 for Marco then...

Article...
 
It's all a bit academic really, the fines arn't much for them both, but it's good that Zidane is going to work his ban, I think that's a bigger thing than the fine.
 
If two people in the street had a fight - one called the other a son of a terrorist whore, the other headbutted him to the ground - in front of the cops, what would happen?

They'd both get a night in the cells and be let go without charge the next day.

So to be fined is quite a big deal, even though it seems small with respect to their salaries - you shouldn't treat them differently just because they're footballers.

Kudos to Zidane though. He might yet come out of this more popular than he went in...
 
I think both of them got off fairly lightly for bringing the game into disrepute... especially given the prominence of the match! But atleast Zidane is willing to pay his penance...
 
Has Zidane confirmed what Materazzi actually said?
 
So Zidane gets to play football with kids as his community service? What a hardship that'll be for him...
 
He didn't have to do it, he could have just had the 3 match ban despite being retired now and not had to do anything. But he chose to work his ban, which is a good gesture.
 
Fines mean nothing to athletes. I laugh my butt off whenever some sportscaster says "and he'll feel that one with a $10,000 fine from the league!". $10,000? That's how much an athlete spends on Dom Perrignon each week. When you make $1,000,000/month, $10,000 is butt-wiping money. Athletes understand supsension without pay, but piddly fines are just ridiculous.
 
Where the hell do the fines go, anyway? To the community? To Fifa's big wigs? To the club?
 
kylehnat
Fines mean nothing to athletes. I laugh my butt off whenever some sportscaster says "and he'll feel that one with a $10,000 fine from the league!". $10,000? That's how much an athlete spends on Dom Perrignon each week. When you make $1,000,000/month, $10,000 is butt-wiping money. Athletes understand supsension without pay, but piddly fines are just ridiculous.
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Should they be treated differently from regular people because they are wealthy?
 
Famine
Should they be treated differently from regular people because they are wealthy?
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I'm not sure what you mean, but my point is that the league fining athletes for trivial amounts (to them, anyway) does not count as a punishment. If I punched a random guy in the face, and got fined $1 by my sanctioning body, would that stop me from doing it again? Probably not (and I have an extensive list of people :P).

Edit: I see what you mean. You're saying that if this happened on the street between two people, neither would be fined, so why should athletes be? Well, sports have their own set of rules, which the athletes agree to follow. If I abandoned my car by the side of the road, unscrewed the steering wheel, and left it in the footwell, the local police might be inconvenienced, but nothing would come of it. However, if I were an F1 driver on the track, the FIA would fine me for $25,000 for this act. Is that unfair? No, because it's in the sporting rules which I agreed to.
 
I still get a kick out of that everytime I see it.

But meh, if it ends up helping the community then great! If not, oh well.
 
Famine
Should they be treated differently from regular people because they are wealthy?
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As long as they must pay a fine, yes, they should be. The fine is there to punish you. But if you can just pay it right away cause you're rich, where's the punishment in that?
 
the Interceptor
As long as they must pay a fine, yes, they should be. The fine is there to punish you. But if you can just pay it right away cause you're rich, where's the punishment in that?
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kylehnat
I'm not sure what you mean, but my point is that the league fining athletes for trivial amounts (to them, anyway) does not count as a punishment. If I punched a random guy in the face, and got fined $1 by my sanctioning body, would that stop me from doing it again? Probably not (and I have an extensive list of people :P).

Edit: I see what you mean. You're saying that if this happened on the street between two people, neither would be fined, so why should athletes be? Well, sports have their own set of rules, which the athletes agree to follow. If I abandoned my car by the side of the road, unscrewed the steering wheel, and left it in the footwell, the local police might be inconvenienced, but nothing would come of it. However, if I were an F1 driver on the track, the FIA would fine me for $25,000 for this act. Is that unfair? No, because it's in the sporting rules which I agreed to.
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That wasn't the question. The question was whether rich people should be punished more than not-as-rich people.

Dave Smegpot is a League Two footballer. He earns £32,000 a year playing for Bumbleton Imbeciles Nil. He headbutts a guy in the chest during an imprtant match on live TV, because the guy said he likes sleeping with octopodes.

Lucius St. Brilliant is an UberHyperUltraSuperPremier League MaxiOne player, who also plays international football for Brazitaly. He earns £3.2 million a year playing for Megacity Roversdon. He headbutts a guy in the chest during an important match on live TV, because the guy said he once reversed into a lamppost, even though his Lexover RXH2 V24 Si Turbo's parking sensor was bleeping!


Both committed exactly the same offence. Should they be fined differently because they earn different amounts?
 
Famine

Both committed exactly the same offence. Should they be fined differently because they earn different amounts?
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Since the fine is meant to be a punishment, yes they should. Leagues are not equal. In order to levy fines, the league must examine the salaries of their players. A $1,000 fine to Barry Bonds ($20,000,000/year salary) is not the same as a $1,000 fine to Joe McNormal, who plays in the minor minor leagues, and gets a $400/month stipend. Both play the same sport and committed the same offense, but both were not punished equally, even though they got fined the same amount. For Bonds, it's a pinch on the wrist. For Joe, it's his salary for 3 months. Who do you think got "punished" more?
 
kylehnat
Since the fine is meant to be a punishment, yes they should.

(...)

Both play the same sport and committed the same offense, but both were not punished equally, even though they got fined the same amount. For Bonds, it's a pinch on the wrist. For Joe, it's his salary for 3 months. Who do you think got "punished" more?
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100% on spot! 👍
 
kylehnat
Since the fine is meant to be a punishment, yes they should. Leagues are not equal. In order to levy fines, the league must examine the salaries of their players. A $1,000 fine to Barry Bonds ($20,000,000/year salary) is not the same as a $1,000 fine to Joe McNormal, who plays in the minor minor leagues, and gets a $400/month stipend. Both play the same sport and committed the same offense, but both were not punished equally, even though they got fined the same amount. For Bonds, it's a pinch on the wrist. For Joe, it's his salary for 3 months. Who do you think got "punished" more?
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Hmm.

So would you levy fines as a percentage of wages? A headbutt is worth 10% of your salary, that kind of thing?
 
I'm siding with Famine here.
I think it's redundant to quantify an assault in terms of cash, because all parties place different values on assaults based on what they're sensitive to.

Aside from that, yes, cash is a very small price to pay for a very rewarding headbutt.

I would rather see them forced to do some sort of community involvement, or something like that, rather than paying their way out of it (assault prostitution? FIFA as an assault pimp?).
 
Famine
Hmm.

So would you levy fines as a percentage of wages? A headbutt is worth 10% of your salary, that kind of thing?
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Yeah, why not? When you're caught speeding in Switzerland, you don't pay a specific fine. You pay a specific percentage of your income, which equals the same punishment for the rich and the poor.

Regards
the Interceptor
 

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