The 110th Minute.

We can be but partially acquainted even with the events which actually influence our course through life and our final destiny. Could we know all the vicissitudes of our fortunes, life would be too full of hope and fear, exultation or disappointment, to afford us a single hour of true serenity. Acting instinctively is a primal habit of the social animal. No matter how well you plan, how well you try to manipulate the forthcoming situations, you will be swayed by the course of events and work according to it. Life is a strange humdrum affair where the graph of life forms a gram which can be deciphered by none. You can but try to meticulously work on your fortune and prove that the wrong that men do lies not in their stars but in their actions.

Football, a highly revered epidemically viral sport among an odd 170 countries around the globe is pretty much like a life circle. The starting of the game portrays the birth of an infant ready to explore the dangerous treacherous world awaiting his entry to engage and tangle him into an incessant mind game. The minutes tick by, the boy makes initial strides towards his goal. But he is confronted by defenders, who put obstacles in his path so that he can work on his present situation in a better way and come back stronger and better. The little boy now a youth with fresh blood running hot in his veins becomes more adventurous and rushes past the defenders with full zeal and enters that phase of his life where he gains the maximum of experiences, where the graph of his life has the most number of crests and troughs and gets gripped into its fold with peeping loopholes for sometime. But the true champion, finds those loopholes and kicks the final step towards his goal. But he has to be careful so as not to attract the final obstacle to get himself attached to it at the active site and rather denature it to complete his mission. That brings us to the end of Normal 90 minutes of a football match equivalent to a life cycle of an individual.

But in the midst of this cycle, in between this limitation of time-controlled events; occurs an event enough to cause an uproar from the ocean of similar human beings. They say to err is human, to forgive divine. But does this ideally pleasing thought have a fair success rate in this horribly practical world? Doth not the 110th minute of a single match redefine all that is perceived of a human being and shatter him to pieces without even bothering to question him, without even bothering to listen to his side of the disastrous course of events?

The 2006 World Cup FIFA final match between four time champions Italy and a sole time champion France was a match worth remembering. Both teams were in their best forms, despite the early set back had come out rocking and reeling to make it to the finals. The match was Zinedine Yazid Zidane's last ever match in the international forum. Being the captain of the winning team in 1998, he brought out the best out of his team. The match started and within the very first 20 minutes both the teams outwitted each other by levelling their scores. Time ticked by and slowly the 90 minutes of the match were over. The extra time started towards the search of the ultimate winner. Fueled up with energy, they played with all their zeal and then happened the inevitable. Marco Materrazi of Italy and Zidane of France geared up closer to each other and Materazzi happened to be tugging at his shirt. After sometime, they walked apart but Zidane suddenly head-butted him at the 110th minute only to be awarded with a red-card and Italy won the match in the penalty shootouts. But why did Zidane, a brand ambassador of UNESCO, a free-spirited cool person go back to head-butt Materazzi?? --- the question lurked long in the minds of people and controversies emerged from all corners.

Apparently, the media was voluminously sympathizing on the situation. Scrutinizing the events from all possible angles; the paparazzi hurled all kind of accusations and brought all kinds conclusions they could of the 110th minute. Interviews, conferences revealed that while Materazzi tugged at his shirt Zidane said that he would give him afterwards. But Materazzi was accused of provoking Zidane by saying," I prefer the whore that is your sister." A sane human being no matter how cool-minded, no matter how disciplined in going by the rules of humane behaviour is sure to stir the animal instinct out of any human. Football is a free-spirited game where at all times no matter what; one should maintain the decorum of the same. But censure, praise, merriment, scorn, and indifference were all one, or rather all nothing, to Zinedine Zidane. The glory of a person was at stake. He was snatched of his actual worth, his actual praise because of one folly of his. Materazzi did apologise but did that wash away his statement, did that bring back the 110th minute of the game and did that change the consequences of the game whose result might have been different?At all points of time and at all situations of circumstances, Zidane's slightly regretting, slightly accusing thought should always be beared in mind that no matter what, "Let's not forget that provocation is a terrible thing. I have never been one to provoke: I have never done it. It's terrible, and it is best not to react."