Materazzi pleased with FIFA hearing
"Everything went fine" for Italy's World Cup-winner Marco Materazzi at his meeting with FIFA officials, according to the player's agent.
World football's governing body opened disciplinary proceedings against Materazzi on Thursday in an attempt to discover what he said to Zinedine Zidane moments before the Frenchman head-butted him in the Germany 2006 final.
Zidane was sent off for the incident in extra-time, and Italy won the match on penalties.
Materazzi, who was accompanied by his lawyer and Italian Football Federation external relations executive Sergio Di Cesare, was quizzed for an hour and a half on Friday morning in FIFA's Zurich headquarters.
"Marco was optimistic after the meeting," said the player's agent, Claudio Vigorelli.
"Everything went fine. He gave his version of what happened.
"He will not have to return to Zurich at a later stage."
Materazzi brought the meeting forward from July 20 due to his holidays, and Vigorelli confirmed: "Marco will fly on Sunday to the Maldives.
He then joked: "Do you know where Zidane will spend his holidays? It's just that the Maldives are small islands..."
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"Materazzi's agent, Claudio Vigorelli, said FIFA should only consider Zidane's reaction.
"His reaction was absolutely out of order, especially in a big game like the final, because it was his last game as a football player," Vigorelli told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Vigorelli said any punishment toward Materazzi could create a difficult precedent, citing the case of Italy forward Francesco Totti, who was banned for three games for spitting at Denmark's Christian Poulsen during the 2004 European Championship.
"Totti was banned for four games, which was reduced to three, and nothing happened to Poulsen - this is absolutely a similar case," Vigorelli said. "If they want to attack a player for what he keeps saying on the pitch, they will be very busy in the future because it's quite normal that players shout to each other in a game - especially when it's such a stressful game."
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