Materazzi gives thumbs-up after FIFA hearing

“Everything went fine” for Italy’s World Cup-winning defender Marco Materazzi at his meeting with FIFA officials today, according to the player’s agent.

World football’s governing body opened disciplinary proceedings against Materazzi yesterday 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 this morning in FIFA’s Zurich headquarters.

“Marco was optimistic after the meeting,” the player’s agent Claudio Vigorelli said. “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...”