Netherlands vs England referee: UEFA appoint controversial official slammed by Jude Bellingham for Euro 2024 semi-final

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·08 de julho de 2024

Netherlands vs England referee: UEFA appoint controversial official slammed by Jude Bellingham for Euro 2024 semi-final

Three Lions star was fined in 2021 for referencing a previous match-fixing scandal in criticism of Felix Zwayer

UEFA have appointed controversial German referee Felix Zwayer to officiate England’s Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands in Dortmund.

Vídeos OneFootball

Zwayer, 43, was involved in a match-fixing scandal in 2005 and was given a six-month ban.

He also took a two-month break from refereeing in 2021 following a controversial ‘Der Klassiker’ game at Signal Iduna Park between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.

Zwayer turned down Dortmund's appeals for a penalty before giving Bayern a spot-kick for a handball by Mats Hummels.

After that game, then-Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham questioned his officiating.

Bellingham said: “You give a referee, that has match fixed before, the biggest game in Germany. What do you expect?”

England’s Bellingham was fined £34,000 by the German Football Association (DFB) for his comments.

History: Jude Bellingham was previously fined for comments made about referee Felix Zwayer

PA/Getty Images

Wednesday’s semi-final will be Zwayer’s fourth game of Euro 2024 so far. He oversaw the group-stage matches between Italy and Albania and Portugal and Turkey, and was also in charge of the Netherlands’ 3-0 win over Romania in the last 16.

He is regularly used by UEFA across its club and national team competitions, and was given the Nations League final between Croatia and Spain last year.

Zwayer will be assisted by Stefan Lupp and Marco Achmuller, with Daniel Siebert the fourth official and Bastian Dankert as video assistant referee (VAR). Dankert will be assisted by Christian Dingert and Marco Fritz in the VAR room.