Luke Shaw responds as England handed referee involved in ‘match fixing’ vs Netherlands
German referee Felix Zwayer was suspended for six months in 2006 after being caught up in a match-fixing scandal but is now considered among UEFA’s top match officials
Luke Shaw insists that England aren’t focused on the fact UEFA have appointed a referee who was involved in a match fixing scandal to oversee their Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands.
German official Felix Zwayer secretly served a six-month ban in 2006, having been found to have accepted a €300 (£250) bribe while assisting disgraced referee Robert Hoyzer, who was subsequently jailed for two years. When he and three other high-ranking referees informed the German football federation (DFB) about Hoyzer’s match-fixing, Zwayer was suspended for six months.
His ban was kept under wraps until a German newspaper uncovered the decision in 2014. Zwayer’s suspension was back in the spotlight three years ago when England star Jude Bellingham, then playing for Borussia Dortmund, slammed the referee during a post-match interview and referenced the ban.
Now Bellingham will meet Zwayer again as the German takes charges of England’s clash with the Netherlands in Dortmund on Wednesday, battling it out for a place in the Euro 2024 final against France or Spain. But when asked if his appointment was in their thinking at all, England team-mate Shaw confidently replied: “Not at all.”
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The Manchester United defender added: “We have to respect UEFA on whoever they decide to pick as ref. That won’t change anything for us, we just focus on the game at hand and not focus on the refs we are given.”
Bellingham brought up the match-fixing scandal after Zwayer gave a penalty against Dortmund in their late 3-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in November 2021. The England midfielder fumed: “It hits [Mats Hummels’ arm] and I don’t even think he’s looking at the ball but you know you can look at a lot of the decisions in the game.
“You give a referee that has match-fixed before, the biggest game in Germany what do you expect?”
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Jude Bellingham was fined for his comments relating to Felix Zwayer’s ban (
Image:
INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)
The DFB fined Bellingham €40,000 (£33,970) and Zwayer took two months off amid the fallout. The 43-year-old referee says that he was asked by colleague Hoyzer to fix the result of a second-division game between Rot-Weiss Essen and Cologne.
“When I got this firm offer from Hoyzer, I went to my refereeing colleagues,” Zwayer claims. “I stress once again that I strongly rejected this offer straightaway.”
He has consistently denied being involved in Hoyzer’s fix of Wuppertal and Werder Bremen B’s clash in 2004, although a DFB investigation discovered that Zwayer had accepted a payment from Hoyzer.
