PSG vs Arsenal referee: Uefa appoint controversial official for Champions League semi-final decider

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·6 maggio 2025

PSG vs Arsenal referee: Uefa appoint controversial official for Champions League semi-final decider

Germany’s Felix Zwayer previously served a six-month suspension back in 2005

Man in the middle: Felix Zwayer will take charge of PSG vs Arsenal in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final tie

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Felix Zwayer has been appointed as the referee for Arsenal's Champions League semi-final second-leg decider against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.

UEFA have announced that the German official, 43, will take charge of the return leg in Paris, with Arsenal a goal down on aggregate following last week’s narrow defeat at the Emirates Stadium.

But while Zwayer is one of European football’s most experienced referees, having been involved in 684 matches to date, he has a controversial past.

In 2005, one year after starting out as a professional referee, he was caught up in a €2million German match-fixing scandal involving fellow referee Robert Hoyzer.

Zwayer allegedly accepted a bribe of €300 while working as Hoyzer’s assistant referee in a match.

He and two other officials caught up in the scandal admitted their involvement to the German Football Association (DFB), after which Zwayer was handed a six-month ban from refereeing.

Zwayer went on to help bring the match-fixing plot to light and was rewarded in part with a reduced suspension.

It took several years for Zwayer’s ban to come to light, until the German publication Die Zeit received the details via a leak in 2014.

But Zwayer has rebuilt his career and become one of the most experienced referees in the game since returning from that 2005 suspension, and took charge of last summer’s Euro 2024 semi-final between England and the Netherlands in Dortmund.