Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham reacted with harsh criticism to the performance of referee Felix Zwayer in the top Bundesliga match between BVB and FC Bayern Munich (2: 3). That was not without consequences: In the meantime, there is apparently a criminal complaint against the 18-year-old.
“For me it wasn’t a penalty. Hummels doesn’t even look at the ball and he fights for it,” said Bellingham on the Norwegian TV station Viaplay addressed to the controversial scene that led to the penalty for FC Bayern and the 3-2 winning goal.
The Englishman continued: “You can watch many other decisions in this game. What do you expect when you broadcast the biggest game in Germany to a referee who has already been involved in match-fixing?”
Bellingham was alluding to the 2005 soccer betting scandal. Zwayer was one of the Berlin referees who brought down the former referee Robert Hoyzer with their statements.
Afterwards, Zwayer was also banned for six months because he did not report the match manipulations by Hoyzer he knew and accepted 300 euros from Hoyzer before a game between Wuppertaler SV against Werder Bremen II in order to help as a line judge to avoid critical situations for Wuppertal . However, the judgment against Zwayer was not published by the DFB at the time, it only became publicly known in 2014.
BVB: Criminal charges against Bellingham and Gräfe
As the image reported, the DFB control committee already determined based on Bellingham’s statements, a subsequent suspension is not excluded. “The control committee will examine the statement of the Dortmund player Jude Bellingham for its relevance to sports criminal law,” confirmed the control committee chairman Anton Nachreiner dem SID.
In addition, according to information from image-Zeitung filed a criminal complaint by referee observer Marco Haase. It is about “insult, gossip and defamation”.
But that’s not all: The complaint is also directed against the former Bundesliga referee Manuel Gräfe, who is now an expert in ZDF. He had also criticized Zwayer’s decisions on Saturday evening. Haase’s ad literally states that Bellingham could not have made his statements “from life experience” without Counts.
BVB bosses Hans-Joachim Watzke and Michael Zorc defended Bellingham, while Oliver Kahn reacted with incomprehension. Here is the message.
Long-time soccer lawyer Christoph Schickardt sees no consequences for Bellingham. “His statement is indecent, but not objectionable, it is clearly covered by the right to freedom of expression,” said the 66-year-old kicker. “It’s legal, but not legitimate. Anyone who has employed something like Zwayer has to live with it. In my opinion, the DFB cannot take action against Bellingham.”
BVB: Bellingham’s accusation against Zwayer
Erling Haaland also spoke to the Norwegian TV broadcaster. The goalscorer spoke of a “scandal” and said of Zwayer: “He was arrogant, that’s all I will say.”
Dortmund’s displeasure also resulted from the fact that a duel between Lucas Hernandez and Marco Reus in Bayern’s penalty area had not previously been called.
Bellingham said: “If one of the two situations needs to be checked, it’s the other. Bayern’s penalty didn’t look like anything in real time, but if he’d hit the arm it would have been fair. But Dortmund’s non-decision was a clear one Penalty. “
Zwayer himself justified his decisions on Sky-Microphone. You can find the detailed report here.