There was a state of anger among the English fans, with the announcement of the referee for the match between their country and its Dutch counterpart, in the semi-finals of the European Championship “Euro 2024”.
The upcoming match, scheduled for Wednesday, will be managed by an all-German refereeing team led by Felix Zwier, who has a controversial history.
Zwire was previously suspended due to his proven role in a match-fixing scandal in 2005, and he also has a long history of hostility with England national team star Jude Bellingham, who made previous statements against the referee that called for his punishment.
Zwier (43 years old) was suspended for 6 months in 2016 by the German Football Association, when the scandal of referee Robert Heuser fixing the results of matches in various German competitions in 2005 was exposed, and Felix was an assistant to this referee.
Zwier admitted to the manipulation scandal and was banned for only 6 months, while Heuser was banned for life.
As for Bellingham, he was fined 40,000 euros by the German Football Association in 2021, due to his comments about Zwier after his team’s match at the time, Borussia Dortmund, against Bayern Munich, according to “Sky Sports.”
After this match, Bellingham said: “A referee who was accused of fixing the results of matches cannot referee such matches. What do you expect from him?”
At that time, the German Federation decided that the English international’s statements amounted to “unsportsmanlike conduct.”
On Monday, England national team left-back Luke Shaw said in a press conference that Bellingham’s past with Zaire will not affect the team in Wednesday’s match.
He added: "I think we have to respect UEFA about whoever decides to choose him as a referee. This will not change anything about us, we are still focused on the match being at hand."
For Zwier, the match between England and the Netherlands is the second in the tournament in which the Dutch national team is a party, after he also officiated the “Mills” match against Romania in the round of 16, and he also refereeed the match between Italy against Albania and Portugal against Turkey in the same tournament.
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