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PARIS - France football fans still fuming over defeat in last July's World Cup final, took their grievance to court on Friday in a bid to prove match officials wrongly sent off captain Zinedine Zidane.
Zidane's red card, after he butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest, was the turning point in a tight match in Berlin that ended in a win for Italy on penalties.
Two Paris-based groups calling themselves the National Collective for Truth on the Final of the 2006 World Cup and World Cup Justice 2006, filed a suit against the French football federation and world governing body FIFA.
Their lawyer Mehana Mouhou said match officials relied on video evidence of Zidane's attack, which he said was against FIFA rules that require officials to witness incidents directly.
Lawyers for the French federation and FIFA dismissed the case as a publicity stunt and a judgement is expected on December 15.
- REUTERS
