UEFA has made a final decision on the referee for the Euro 2024 semi-final between England and the Netherlands, after originally awarding the game to a convicted match-fixer.
UEFA announced on Sunday that Felix Zwayer, 43, will referee the match in Dortmund on Wednesday night, despite serving a six-month ban after it emerged he had accepted a €300 (£253.82) bribe from fellow referee Robert Hoyzer in a 2005 scandal.
Mail Sport has contacted UEFA for comment and asked how, given his background, Zwayer could have been chosen to referee such a match. It is understood that UEFA officials carried out a review which has now been concluded.
Mail Sport understands Zwayer will remain in charge for Wednesday’s semi-final, with UEFA sticking with their initial appointment.
Zwayer was implicated in a scandal that centred on second division boss Hoyzer, who accepted bribes to fix several matches.
UEFA has decided to keep referee Felix Zwayer (pictured) for the Euro 2024 semi-final between England and the Netherlands despite the referee being convicted of match-fixing
England will hope to book their place in the final by beating the Netherlands in Dortmund.
The Netherlands have found their form in the knockout stages and will provide a tough test.
Zwayer, then a linesman, assisted him in a match and was paid €300 (£253.82).
He was banned from refereeing for six months, a decision that was kept secret until German newspaper Zeit broke the story years later.
The Zeit investigation found that while Hoyzer, who was sentenced to two years and five months in prison, was searching Zwayer’s apartment, he was found to have behaved in a “grossly unsportsmanlike” manner.
The investigation also found that Zwayer failed to report Hoyzer’s match-fixing “of which he was aware” and that he accepted €300 (£253.82) from Hoyzer before a match between SV Wuppertal and Werder Bremen Amateure in May 2004, in order to “avoid critical situations for Wuppertaler SV as an assistant referee”.
Munich criminal judge Rainer Koch was responsible for the case on behalf of the DFB and ruled that Zwayer did indeed accept the bribe, but that he also contributed to the resolution of the case and that no intentional errors could be attributed to him.
The controversial referee also has a history with Jude Bellingham after refereeing a Bundesliga match between the Englishman’s former club, Borussia Dortmund, and Bayern Munich in 2021.
Zwayer turned down Dortmund’s penalty appeals during the decisive clash and later awarded Bayern a penalty after penalising Mats Hummels for handball.
Robert Lewandowski scored the winner to give the visitors a victory that leaves them four points clear of Dortmund at the top of the table.
Zwayer has a history with England’s Jude Bellingham after the midfielder brought up the referee’s controversial past after a game in 2021.
Bellingham, then 18, attacked Zwayer after Dortmund’s defeat to Bayern Munich.
Bayern would go on to win the league and Dortmund would finish second. Bellingham, who was 18 at the time, attacked Zwayer after the final whistle.
“You can see a lot of the decisions in the game,” Bellingham said in a post-match television interview.
‘You give Germany’s biggest game to a referee who has already fixed matches. What do you expect?’
Bellingham was subsequently fined €40,000 (£33,843) and even investigated by German police, while Zwayer took a two-month break from refereeing.
However, Dortmund insisted they were “100 per cent” behind their player.
Sporting director Michael Zorc said: “It was a very emotional situation, I was very disappointed and only mentioned known facts.”
Chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke added: ‘To be clear, Jude was not spreading lies, but what happened in the past.
“That statement should not have been made, but I see nothing false in it.”
However, despite his controversial past and his history with Bellingham, Zwayer will still referee England’s match against the Netherlands, with the winners facing either Spain or France in Sunday’s final.
