Yesterday, the international governing body of football FIFA gave its decision regarding the controversial World Cup final incident that led to the ejection of French football superstar Zinedine Zidane from the final match between France and Italy. After an investigating on the headbutting incident, FIFA bans Zidane for three games and fines him 7500 Swiss francs (£3260) for headbutting Italian player Marco Materazzi while the latter is suspended for two matches and is fined 5000 Swiss francs (£2170) for provoking Zidane.

Sunday, July 9, 2006, all eyes were glued to the television as people await the results of the 2006 World Cup Finals. Just ten minutes remaining in the second extra time, French football star Zidane and Italian player Materazzi got into a verbal fight inciting Zidane to head-butt Materazzi. Everyone is shocked by this incident especially that it was Zidane’s final game before ending his 18-year career as a professional football player. 2 days ago, in a TV interview with Canal Plus in Paris, Zidane talked about the incident for the first time. He said sorry, but he didn’t regret doing it.

The results of the recently concluded 2006 World Cup in Germany were generally predictable, sports analysts say; nevertheless, this year’s grand one-month football tournament was unforgettable on its own. This year, Italy led by former player Marcello Lippi again makes history for the fourth time by defeating France with a score of 5-3 in an unforgettable penalty shootout. Germany, the host country of the 18th FIFA World Cup, ranks third while Portugal ranks fourth.

Last night during the most important & critical match of the World Cup between France & Italy, Zinedine Zidane did the unbelievable; he got enraged & gave a dangerous head-butt to Italian player Marco Materazzi & got sent off the green with a red card only 20 minutes before the end of the match during extra-time.
It seems Materazzi provoked Zindane verbally & that's what sent him off.
This final World Cup match is also the final match for Zidane before his retirement, & ending his career like this is a big shame & he will never have a chance to redeem himself!

As we know 4 teams have made it to the final round of the world cup and will be competing for the cup. Tomorrow, the first match will be held between Germany and Italy; Germany has qualified over Argentina in the penalty kicks even though they didn’t play that good and Italy qualified over Ukraine which was its first time in world cup…

Who do you think will win?

P.S: I have some good news for those who aren’t able to watch the matches at home, the matches will be aired on art aintv on Nilesat.

By guest writer Mustafa

• World Cup 2006

Today Saudi Arabia and Tunisia will play their first match in the world cup 2006 in Munich in a game vital to their hopes of progressing to the next round.

Who do you think will win?

- Saudi Arabia
- Tunisia
- A tie

The ball of the World Cup 2006 is not like any previous balls, the Adidas Teamgeist has only 14 sewn panels compared to 26 or 32 sewn panels on old balls, making it far more smoother than ever before and it is also supposed to be the roundest soccer ball ever produced. That's not all, the new Adidas ball is also waterproof, thanks to a thermal bonding technology.

The smoother surface of this new soccer ball gives it a more unpredictable trajectory in the air which makes it harder for goalkeepers to catch it.

via: [ gizmodo ]

3 days separate us from the world cup. Next Friday 736 players representing 32 different countries from 6 different continents are going to compete for the cup.

The first match will be held in Munich at 16:00 GMT and will be between Germany and Costa Rica, and the other match will be in Gelsenkirchen stadium between Poland and Ecuador; who do you think will win?

By guest writer Mustafa

Visit WALEG World Cup 2006 section >>

Everybody is talking about the World Cup 2006 now which will be held in different cities in Germany and will start on the 9th of June, and every one is excited to see their favorite teams... Who do you think will win?

- Germany
- Brazil
- Holland
- England
- Argentina
- Italy
- Spain
- France
- Portugal
- Mexico
- Sweeden
- Other

Click here to vote

By guest writer Mustafa

The biggest event in sports is on its way and it brings with it the usual media frenzy, football filled advertising, international rivalry, hooliganism, hormonal teenage girls keeping their eyes peeled for the fittest knees, colourful flags and every kind of memorabilia imaginable as well as the highs and lows of goals, winning and losing.

Unfortunately only two arab teams made it into the 2006 world cup and guess what? they’re only in the same group (coincidence? you decide). so get ready to see tunisia vs saudi arabia on june 14th in a group which includes spain and ukraine (ahem, ahem, call me a cynic but i think the two teams which will go through are not going to be arab teams).

The Final Draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany took place in Leipzig on the 9th of December.

The 32 nations, divided into eight groups competing in next year's finals learned their first-round opponents:

Group A
Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador

Group B
England
Paraguay
Trinidad and Tobago
Sweden

World Cup finalists Tunisia will play friendlies at home against Libya on January 12 and Ghana on January 15, in preparation for the defence of their African Nations Cup crown, the Tunisian Football Federation said.

Tunisia are drawn to play in the Egyptian city of Alexandria during the Nations Cup finals which start on January 20. Their opponents will be Guinea, South Africa and Zambia.

The final matches of the Asia world cup 2006 Qualifications was underway yesterday, and the results were as follows:

Bahrain - Korea DPR 2 : 3
Japan – Iran 2 : 1
Uzbekistan – Kuwait 3 : 2
Korea Republic - Saudi Arabia 0 : 1

In Saturday’s matches of the Preliminaries for the world cup qualifications, Tunisia & Morocco won in the face of Botswana & Malawi.

Tunisia vs. Botswana 3:1
Morocco vs. Malawi 4:1

While Egypt shattered the Sudanese net with 6 goals to 1 on Sunday.

As for the Asian qualification matches ...