Materazzi accepts damages over Zidane racism claims

Italian soccer star Marco Materazzi today accepted substantial undisclosed damages over 'Daily Mail' articles which said that he has used vile racist abuse to French captain Zinedine Zidane.

Materazzi, who currently plays for Inter Milan, was not at London’s High Court for the settlement of his libel case against Associated Newspapers.

His counsel, Jane Phillips, told Mr Justice Eady that, in July 2006, in its coverage of the World Cup Final, the newspaper published a series of items accompanied by photos, including one of Materazzi being head-butted by Zidane, captioned “Revealed: the insult that made Zidane see red”.

She added that the articles stated quite wrongly that Materazzi, who scored one of the crucial penalties which secured an Italian victory, had used vile racist abuse during the match and called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore”.

From July to December that year, it also published articles on its website which included similar defamatory material.

Ms Phillips said that the newspaper accepted that all of the allegations were wholly untrue and that there was no question of Materazzi having said anything of a racist nature to Zidane such as to goad him.

Jonathan Price, for Associated Newspapers, said that it offered its apologies for the distress and embarrassment caused, and had agreed to pay Materazzi substantial damages and his costs.