The referee for the highly anticipated England vs Netherlands Euro 2024 semi-final fixture ahead of the tie on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, has been confirmed.
UEFA has picked a German referee Felix Zwayer, to officiate the upcoming match between England and Netherlands in the semi-finals of the Euro 2024 tournament.
This selection has sparked an intense debate on social media given the current rumours and speculations surrounding Felix Zwayer.
According to reports, in 2005, Zwayer was reportedly implicated in a match-fixing scandal involving 2 Bundesliga referees. Robert Hoyzer, one of the referees, was found to have accepted bribes to fix several matches he officiated, and Zwayer was said to have assisted him in one match and accepted a bribe of 300 euros to avoid crucial scenes for Wuppertaler SV.
In January 2005, Zwayer and three other high-ranking referees reported Hoyzer’s match-fixing to the DFB. As a result, Zwayer was banned from refereeing for 6 months. However, this suspension was kept confidential for several years until it was revealed by the German newspaper Die Zeit, which published a secret file from the German FA.
German referee Zwayer has been a UEFA-approved referee since 2004 and has officiated three Euro 2024 games. He will now referee the semi-final in Dortmund.
Since that incident, the German referee has become one of the top referees in Europe and has officiated many important matches. Although he will probably treat the semi-final like any other game, any controversial decisions during the match could raise doubts about the referee.
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