World soccer's governing body fined Zinedine Zidane with 7,500 Swiss Francs and banned him for three games due to the incident in the final match of the World Cup in which Zidane head-butted Italian player Materazzi. Since the former France captain is retired, he agreed to complete three days of community service with children.
On the other hand, Materazzi was fined with 5,000 Swiss francs and banned for two matches for “repeatedly provoking” Zidane and insulting him. “Both players stressed that Materazzi's comments had been defamatory but not of a racist nature,” FIFA explained in a press release.
According to the same release, both players apologized to FIFA for their inappropriate behavior and expressed their regret at the incident. Materazzi and Zidane spent more than an hour each before a FIFA disciplinary committee.