Sunday, January 9, 2022 at 10:09 PM• Tom Rofekamp • Last update: 23:00

Felix Zwayer has put away the referee’s whistle for the time being. According to referee boss Lutz Michael Fröhlich, the German arbitrator, who recently received strong criticism from Jude Bellingham and Erling Braut Haaland, “wants to come to himself.” Zwayer has therefore scheduled a holiday for himself. It is not yet known when the leader will return to the (inter)national fields.

“Zwayer has taken vacation after his last international game (Real Sociedad – PSV on December 9 ed.)”, Fröhlich said in conversation with BILD. “At the moment he is not active as a referee. He has decided that himself. He wants to come to himself mentally and think about the events after the game in Dortmund.” Zwayer came under fire for several controversial decisions during Borussia Dortmund – Bayern Munich last December (2-3). The referee gave, among other things, a questionable penalty, with which Bayern took the victory.

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Bellingham was furious about the decision. “What else do you expect, when you give Germany’s biggest game to someone who previously did match fixing?”, the midfielder reacted in front of the camera of viaplay. Bellingham was referring to a 2005 match-fixing case in which Zwayer was involved. As an assistant referee, he took 300 euros in bribes, but soon reported this to the German Football Association. Zwayer was subsequently suspended for six months.

The Bellingham case received a lot of attention at home and abroad and resulted in the Englishman being fined 40,000 euros, among other things. The German referees’ association then decided not to let Zwayer lead any more Dortmund matches for the time being. “In my opinion, it is irresponsible to all parties to get back together quickly,” Fröhlich said at the end of December in conversation with kicker. “It would be good to let it pass some time.” Zwayer has now decided to abstain from all competitions for the coming period. The referees’ association announced that he would be on holiday ‘until further notice’.