Felix Zwayer, Jude Bellingham and the match-fixing scandal that overshadows England-Netherlands match

The decision to appoint Felix Zwayer as referee for the Euro 2016 semi-final between England and the Netherlands will see the German referee reunited with Jude Bellingham. It has also drawn global attention to Zwayer’s difficult past.

It is UEFA’s most controversial appointment of the tournament. Zwayer, now 43, has long been regarded as one of Germany’s most prominent referees. But in 2004, when he was an assistant referee, an investigation revealed that he had accepted a €300 payment from Robert Hoyzer, a referee who was later banned for life for match-fixing, to secure the outcome of a match between Wuppertal and Werder Bremen II.

Zwayer has always denied influencing the outcome of the match in question and a DFB investigation found no evidence that he had any influence. He served a six-month ban for failing to refuse Hoyzer’s approach and then for failing to report it. That sentence was mitigated in exchange for evidence he provided that helped lead to Hoyzer’s conviction, which he received a two-year and five-month prison sentence.

But after serving his suspension, Zwayer rebuilt his career, becoming one of Germany’s most prominent referees.

The problem was that the case against Zwayer had been covered up by the German Football Association (DFB) for a decade.

In September 2014, Zwayer became German football’s referee of the year. It was only a few months later, in December 2014, that the newspaper Die Zeit revealed that Zwayer had accepted money from Hoyzer, that his apartment had been raided and that he had been suspended – none of which had been made public before. Zwayer has remained a controversial figure in German football ever since and it is not hard to find people who believe that his integrity has been seriously compromised by the Hoyzer affair.

That stain on his reputation has never been erased. The Zwayer story – and the whole Hoyzer episode – was re-aired in December 2021, when Jude Bellingham’s club, Borussia Dortmund, took on Bayern Munich at the Westfalenstadion.

At 2-2 in the second half, Marco Reus took advantage of a through ball and appeared to be pushed to the ground in the penalty area by Lucas Hernandez. In real time, it certainly looked like a penalty. Zwayer said no and, much to Dortmund’s anger, refused to consult the VAR screen to review the incident.

Dortmund were furious. Zwayer was later interviewed by Sport1 and said that when he saw the tackle and noticed Hernandez punching him in the back, he then described what he saw to his VAR, asking if he had missed something.

“The question was whether there had been any other contact that I had not noticed. I was told that there had not been any. That is why it was not a penalty and there was no control on the field.”

It was probably a bad decision by the VAR team. Looking back on the issue, it seems like it was more than just a push in the back – Reus appears to have been tripped too – and so Zwayer should have been directed to the screen. It wouldn’t have mattered, Erling Haaland was offside in the build-up – that was later revealed – and a penalty would never have been awarded. But procedurally it wasn’t quite right.

Hernandez’s challenge on Reus

That wasn’t the only controversy. Bayern’s winning goal came from the penalty spot after Mats Hummels was booked for a clumsy handball. The decision was correct, but – in a move that further irked Dortmund – Zwayer called on VAR to deliberate before making his decision.

At the end of a game full of emotion and tension, Dortmund were overwhelmed by a sense of injustice. They defended horribly and had no reason to complain, but it was in this context that came the quote from Bellingham that everyone would remember.

After the match, Bellingham was interviewed by Jan Aage Fjortoft, a former Eintracht Frankfurt and Norway striker who now works for ViaPlay. He asked him for his opinion on both decisions. Bellingham did not agree with either.

“You give a referee who fixed a match before the biggest match in Germany… what do you expect?”

It was a surprising remark and the consequences were dramatic, even unique. The referee’s assessor that night, Marco Haase, filed a criminal complaint for slander and defamation against Bellingham and former referee-turned-expert Manuel Grafe.

Grafe had already been one of the whistleblowers in the Hoyzer affair and had persistently criticized Zwayer. Shortly before the Dortmund-Bayern match, he had said in an interview that “someone who has taken money once and kept silent about Hoyzer’s manipulations for six months should not referee in professional football.”

The complaint lacked “legal basis” and was not processed, but the reaction lasted for weeks.

Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke defended his player, saying: “Jude didn’t insult anyone, he just described a fact.”

The following day, then-Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn told Sky Deutschland that Bellingham’s comments were “clearly a big step forward”.

(Christian Charisius/photo alliance via Getty Images)

Bellingham was fined €40,000 (£34,000; $43,000) for his remarks, but avoided suspension. Zwayer received a barrage of criticism, including death threats. He briefly considered quitting refereeing. Instead, he took a brief sabbatical, before making a quiet return to refereeing in the 2. Bundesliga in February 2022.

Asked about the incident on Sportstudio in April 2022, Zwayer said he wanted to discuss the matter with Bellingham.

“I wanted to know why he said that and where it came from. I don’t think he has a particularly close connection to what happened in 2004. That’s why I wanted to talk to him.”

It was a strange episode, but one that provoked a strong reaction from everyone who came into contact with it. In an article for Die Zeit the day after the match, on December 5, 2021, journalist Oliver Fritsch succinctly explained why.

“Jude Bellingham has raised a fundamental point that the Germans prefer to keep quiet about: because of his history in the Hoyzer affair, many players, managers and coaches no longer respect or trust Felix Zwayer. They interpret his mistakes personally. Anyone who has committed the original sin as a referee is no longer believed.

“Bellingham has now said what many people in the Bundesliga think and know. He did not claim, as some have accused, that Zwayer had manipulated the match on December 4, 2021. He simply questioned the personal fitness of a referee. And reminded us that some footballers or coaches do not want to be refereed by a referee who has already accepted money.”

It’s a problem that will never go away for Zwayer.

He has been a FIFA referee since 2012 and a referee of Champions League matches since 2016. He has officiated hundreds of matches, at national and European level, and on Wednesday evening he will officiate his fourth match of this European Championship.

The fact that the match will be played in Dortmund, on the same ground as the Dortmund-Bayern game, and will feature Bellingham, makes the past even harder to ignore.

Zwayer’s appointment for this game creates a subplot that could be done without.

(Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)