Nathalie Iannetta

On July 9, 2006, Zidane’s headbutt on Materazzi turned the World Cup final into a legend—a symbol of the rivalry between France and Italy. Twenty years after Berlin, the key figures and commentators look back on that iconic match.

More than twenty sports journalists – working mainly on television (BeIN Sports, RMC Sport, France Télévisions, Canal+, TF1) but not only (L'Équipe, Radio France) – testify to the anger, despondency and helplessness they felt when they had to endure the “Yucky jokes”, the « culture de boy’s club » and degrading insults on social networks, while at the same time the presence of women in these programs and in the press has increased. Without forgetting the misogynistic comments, the heaps of small sentences on the physique or the competence, the sexual innuendos… until the moral or sexual harassment.