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  1. Media Law
April 3, 2008

Daily Star will apologise to footballer Marco Materazzi

By Press Gazette

Italian footballer Marco Materazzi will accept an apology from the Daily Star next week over allegations that he racially abused an opponent during the 2006 World Cup final.

The Inter Milan star will attend the High Court on Monday afternoon to hear The Daily Star publicly apologise over a series of articles published after the match alleging that he made racist comments to French captain Zinedine Zidane, including insulting his mother and calling his sister a ‘terrorist whore”. Zidane’s parents are from Algeria.

Zidane famously headbutted Materazzi and was sent off in the dying minutes of the game, but the Italian strongly denies having said the comments. The Star has already apologised in print but is set to pay out undisclosed damages and legal fees.

Materazzi’s lawyer, Steven Heffer of Collyer Bristow, said: ‘There will be a High Court hearing on Monday when The Daily Star will publicly apologise to Marco Materazzi.

‘The Daily Star now accepts that the allegations are wholly untrue and there is no question of Marco Materazzi having said anything of a racist nature to Zidane.

‘The Daily Star will also be paying my client substantial damages and his legal costs.”

Materazzi first began legal action against the paper in July 2007 and proceedings have also begun against The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers, relating to the same story.

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