Dion Fanning: Where do we find consolation in this sporting world?

Sport has become like the real world, except in those tiny glimpses of community.

A bronze sculpture displayed in front of the Centre Pompidou contemporary art center, aka Beaubourg. The sculpture immortalizes the "headbutt" given by Zinedine Zidane to Marco Materazzi during the World Cup final in 2006

In 2006, I was at the Olympiastadion in Berlin when many of us began to wonder why Italy’s Marco Materazzi was lying on the ground apparently in a great deal of pain. In the press box, few around me knew what had happened until the replays showed Zinedine Zidane turning back towards Materazzi, walking towards him with some purpose before…well, you know what came next.

One reporter near me was so outraged by what he saw on the screen that he demanded instant retribution for Zidane. He did so with such mania and fury that myself and a colleague had to ask him to return to his seat. Today, he would have simply summoned allies to his position online, before finding many more who would have made him feel that his initial stance was too forgiving and compassionate.