Their shopping trips were the stuff of legend and their partying exploits tickled the public. And now it seems a nation's dismay has found an outlet - it is the wives and girlfriends who are officially to blame for England's lacklustre World Cup performance.
Reports yesterday claimed the Football Association would ban partners from attending future international tournaments. A spokesman refused to confirm whether a decision had been made, but it is understood the Wags and their champagne-swilling nights out in Baden-Baden were one of the main topics of discussion in a post-World Cup debriefing last week between Steve McClaren, the new England coach, and Brian Barwick, the FA's chief executive.

Until now, it was reckoned that the Wags had a more successful World Cup than the lads. Tales of players' wives spending £57,000 in an hour's designer shopping or dancing on table tops after running up £400 cocktail bills overshadowed the team's pedestrian outings on the pitch. Other halves stayed en masse at the luxury Brenner's Park hotel, creating a paparazzi honeypot.

Disparaged by English pundits and scorned by one Spanish newspaper as "hooligans with visas", they were nevertheless taken to the hearts of the residents and shopkeepers of Baden-Baden. Insiders point out it will be impossible to enforce a total ban, while refusing to assist partners could provoke a backlash among the team. It appears likely, however, that this World Cup will be the last where all of the Wags are gathered in the same hotel.

An FA spokesman said: "We have made no decision on it whatsoever. We haven't even qualified for the next tournament yet. We've got a new manager and we are starting our qualifying games in two months' time. Steve officially starts work on August 1 and is beginning to work on preparing the team for qualification. That's his priority, not what to do with wives and girlfriends at a tournament in two years time." England's qualification campaign for Euro 2008, which takes place in Austria and Switzerland, starts with a match against Andorra at Old Trafford on September 2.

The disgusting abuse that sparked Zidane's fury
By BETH HALE and PETER ALLEN, Daily Mail

22:03pm 10th July 2006


The answer, it has emerged, was a vile stream of racial and personal abuse.

First Marco Matterazzi called the French star the Italian equivalent of 'n*****', and then insulted both his mother and his Muslim background by saying he is the 'son of a terrorist whore.

The revelation will prove even more of an embarrassment to football's governing body than the ironic award of player of the tournament to French captain Zidane.

To millions of television viewers around the world it appeared as if the two sportsman were enjoying a jocular exchange, until the moment Zidane lowered his head and sent his opponent plummeting to the ground.

With the help of an expert lip reader the Daily Mail was able to decipher what led to the violent outburst.

First defender Marco Materazzi spoke in Italian - a language understood by Zidane who once played for Italian side Juventus - grabbed his opponent and told him 'hold on, wait, that one's not for a n***** like you.'

It is not clear whether the Italian was referring to the ball heading their way or his own groping of Zidane.

The expert, who can lip read foreign languages phonetically and translate with the aid of an Italian interpreter, was unable to see what Zidane said in reply.

But she saw that as the players walked forward Materazzi said: 'We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore.'

Then, just before the headbutt, he was seen saying,: 'So just f*** off.'

The translation tallies with the words of Zidane's agent who said the player had told him the Italian made a 'very serious' comment.

'Zinedine didn't want to talk about it but it will all come out in the next week,' said Alain Miglaccio.

'He is a man who normally lets things wash over him but on Sunday night something exploded inside him.'

To some observers who saw Zidane floor his opponent with nine minutes to go, that description might appear an understatement.

The 34-year-old midfielder was red carded in a move that did his side no favours as they went on to lose the final on penalties.

Golden Ball award

But shame was replaced with the glow of the Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player.

For FIFA the award - voted for by journalists before half time in the final game - will be an unwelcome embarrassment.

The organisation has been battling to outlaw violence on the pitch - as well as racism. But with a typically-Gallic shrug of the shoulders Zidane's home nation gave him a hero's welcome - led by President Jacques Chirac.

The politician was positively beaming as he chatted with the player, who announced he would retire after the championship, before a lunch at the Elysee palace in Paris.

For a brief moment it even appeared the sportsman, who had been playing in what was to be his last game as a professional player, was demonstrating just how he executed that infamous headbutt.

With a somewhat untimely tribute, Chirac praised the player as a 'virtuoso' and 'a genius of world football'.

He continued: 'You are also a man of heart, commitment, conviction. That's why France admires and loves you.'

Earlier he said: 'I would like to express all the respect that I have for a man who represents at the same time all the most beautiful values of sport, the greatest human qualities one can imagine, and who has honoured French sport and, simply, France.'

French manager Raymond Domenech also played down the fuss about the head butt - saying Zidane was the victim of rough treatment from his Italian opponents throughout the final in Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

The player is fiercely proud of his family’s Arab background - and his mother who struggled with almost no money to bring up five children.

The family were originally from the village of Taguemoune, in the remote hills of Algeria.

The married father-of-four describes himself as a 'non-practising Muslim'.

Zidane’s father and mother, Smaïl and Malika, were almost unimaginably poor.

They first moved to Paris where there was little work and even less money and so the family moved to Marseille, on the south coast.

It was there that they struggled desperately to bring up five children on a tough council estate. His background means this is not the first time Zidane has endured racial slurs.

Soon after France’s 1998 World Cup win - when Zidane scored two goals - Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the Front National, was complaining about the racial origins of the France team, singling out Zidane as 'a son of French Algeria'.

His comment was carefully loaded. The implication was Zidane was either a colonial lackey or a traitor to the country of his father's birth.

It is well known that Zidane's skill is paired with the potential for rage, most notably when he headbutted Jochen Kientz of Hamburg during a Champions League match in 2000, earning him a five-match suspension.

Defender Materazzi was keeping his mouth firmly closed yesterday.

But his father Giuseppe, said: 'I spoke with my son very briefly on the telephone after the match.

'He didn't tell me what Zidane had said and he just said that I should enjoy this moment and he would tell me everything that happened when he got back.

'He told me that he had been provoked as he has been throughout his career and throughout the last two years.'

According to reports in France, Zidane's mother is seriously ill at the moment and had to go to hospital on Sunday morning.

Other French players have told journalists that their colleague was particularly sensitive because of this mother's condition.

The lauding of Zidane as a hero in France and his naming by FIFA as player of the tournament is in stark contrast to the treatment experienced by England players Wayne Rooney and David Beckham after they were sent off at critical junctures in different World Cups.

Rooney is said to have been widely regarded by members of the FA hierarchy as having acted petulantly before being red carded in England's match against Portugal during this year's tournament.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter also backed the referee who sent off Rooney, adding: "The referee was within touching distance of the players and he took the decision according to what he witnessed."

David Beckham was widely criticised after his sending-off against Argentina in the 1998 finals for kicking out at Diego Simeone. He was on the receiving end of abuse from fans wherever he played for Manchester United for a considerable period afterwards.