Three Cheers for Butthead!

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Not so in soccer. "Fair Play" has been the FIFA motto since 1993, yet the organization has done nothing beyond sloganeering to promote it. It routinely assigns rules issues to its Technical Study Group, which studies and studies and studies and, from time to time, makes the offside rule even more opaque. Or it orders referees to hand out yellow cards for minor offenses, leading to a record number at this Cup without solving the real problem. Other sports, such as rugby and American football, have adapted video replays to help referees. FIFA's biggest change in officiating is to rename the linesmen: now they are called "assistant referees," but they have no additional power. Instead, FIFA continues to create smiley-faced logos and slogans ("A Time to Make Friends" was the official insipidity in Germany) and vapid declarations (FIFA is against racism, officially) while the mayhem on the pitch continues.

Soccer needs better policing, both on the field and in the stands. Even in my amateur league, you sometimes hear a team captain pleading with the referee to take control of a game, to protect the players. Perhaps Zidane, after absorbing 18 years of verbal and physical abuse from lesser soccer mortals, decided to make a stand in front of a billion people. Yes, he said he was sorry for blowing his stack when the game's outcome was still in doubt, and sorry he let his teammates and his country down.

But he didn't apologize for not taking any more guff because soccer's ruling power won't protect its best players. "My act is not forgivable," Zidane said in an interview on French television. "But they must also punish the true guilty party, and the guilty party is the one who provokes." Maybe Zizou struck a blow for justice.