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Felix Zwayer's inclusion as a Euro 2024 referee has been criticised. (Image: Getty)
Euro 2024 referee Felix Zwayer was the subject of a social media rant by ex-German official Manuel Grafe, with Zwayer’s perceived contentious past brought up after Italy’s 2-1 win over Albania.
Grafe launched a late-night series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) when he discovered that Zwayer took charge of the final match on the second day of the competition, even though he was handed a six-month suspension in 2005 as part of a match-fixing case.
Fellow referee Robert Hoyzer was accused of accepting bribes to fix matches, which was reported by Zwayer and three other officials, but they were still sentenced to a ban for their involvement in the matter and were deemed to be assisting Hoyzer.
And Grafe, who spent nearly two decades as a German referee, fumed at the decision to allow Zwayer to referee at the Euros. “This match will go down as a great shame in the glorious history of German referees over the last decades," he wrote.
"A referee who was involved in match-fixing and who remained silent about it for six months until the final moment, thereby enabling further manipulation [being involved]," Grafe claimed.
“[He was] Sentenced by own association, was nominated by DFB/UEFA (zero tolerance match fixing) for the Euros and appointed for this game. Fits this strange time where connection is much more important than values and performances (he’s average at best). Other referees deserved it more."
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Jude Bellingham was fined for his comments about Felix Zwayer. (Image: Viaplay.)
Despite the incident taking place nearly 20 years ago, Zwayer continues to receive criticism as England star Jude Bellingham was fined £33,863 (€40,000) for comments he made as a Borussia Dortmund player in 2021.
A frustrated Bellingham spoke to German TV in the aftermath of Bayern Munich’s 3-2 win at Signal Iduna Park, when Zwayer waved away appeals for a Dortmund penalty only to give a decisive spot-kick that Robert Lewandowski despatched to seal a vital three points.
Bellingham fumed: "You give a referee, that has match fixed before, the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect? For me, it wasn't [a penalty]. He [Mats Hummels] is not even looking at the ball and he's fighting to get it and it hits him. You can look at a lot of the decisions in the game."
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After the match, the German Football Association confirmed that an investigation would be opened into Bellingham’s comments and a criminal complaint was filed to the Dortmund public prosecutor’s office.
Confirming Bellingham’s punishment, a DFB statement read: “The sports court of the German Football Association (DFB) fined Jude Bellingham with a fine of €40,000 in single judge proceedings after the DFB control committee had brought charges for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
“The player of the Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund has already agreed to the judgment, the judgment is now final. After the Bundesliga match against Bayern Munich on Saturday, Bellingham said in a TV interview about referee Felix Zwayer. As a result, he had questioned the referee’s impartiality and ultimately denied it.”
