Borussia Dortmund player Jude Bellingham’s post-match comments about the referee Felix Zwayer in ‘Der Klassiker’ charged him a fine of 40000 euros. His comments are being investigated by the police after a criminal complaint was filed after the football match that was won by Bayern Munich.
Speaking about Zwayer’s decision to award Bayern a handball penalty against Mats Hummels, Bellingham told, “For me, it wasn’t a penalty. “He’s not even looking at the ball, he’s fighting to get it and it hits him. You can look at a lot of other decisions in the game. If you give a referee, who has, you know match fixed before, the biggest game in Germany what do you expect?”
Meanwhile, Zwayer himself told Sky Germany his version of events: “The situation was a standard corner kick. I see in the game that it’s about a touch by Hummels. The question for me was: Is the arm stretched away from the body or not? In real time, it was not clear whether his arm was moved towards the ball.”
“I checked it with [VAR officials] in Cologne and then the arm position was checked. The video assistant made an assessment for himself and said that Hummels had his arm away from the body in an unnatural position. In the end, he clearly deflected the ball with his elbow and I came to the decision that it was a penalty.”
After the game, Dortmund boss Marco Rose said: “We all saw what happened. The challenge on Marco Reus is a clear penalty. Mats Hummels’ handball is at least arguable, it’s a pity. Mr Zwayer is welcome to officiate a few more BVB games. He can put a few more obstacles in our way.”
Zwayer was involved in a match-fixing scandal in Germany in 2005 and said at the time that he had never intentionally influenced the outcome of the match. Germany’s governing body, the DFB, banned Zwayer for six months for his involvement in the scandal, according to Reuters.
