Bellingham has been fined €40,000 after comments made about referee Felix Zwayer
Jude Bellingham has received a fine from the German Football Association after his post-match comments on referee Felix Zwayer following Borussia Dortmund‘s defeat to Bayern Munich last weekend.
Bellingham launched a scathing post-match attack after Zwayer awarded Bayern a penalty for a Mats Hummels handball shortly after Dortmund had a penalty shout turned down themselves.
After the game, the 18-year-old didn’t hold back in his assessment of the referee’s display, highlighting Zwayer’s previous affiliation to the German match-fixing scandal in 2005, which saw him banned for six months.
The former Birmingham City midfielder said: “You can look at a lot of the decisions from the game, you give a referee that has match fixed before the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect?”
“For me, it wasn’t [a penalty]. He [Hummels] is not even looking at the ball and he’s fighting to get it and it hits him.
“You can look at a lot of the decisions in the game.”
Jude Bellingham hadde mye på hjertet etter «Der Klassiker».
Se hele intervjuet med @JanAageFjortoft her! 👀 pic.twitter.com/rvaRSDrZjp
— Viaplay Fotball (@ViaplayFotball) December 4, 2021
Zwayer himself defended his decisions in the game in an interview with Sky Germany in which he said: “The situation was a standard corner kick.
“I see in the game that it’s about a touch by Hummels. The question for me was: Is the arm stretched away from the body or not? In real-time, it was not clear whether his arm was moved towards the ball.
“I checked it with [VAR officials] in Cologne and then the arm position was checked. The video assistant made an assessment for himself and said that Hummels had his arm away from the body in an unnatural position.
“In the end, he clearly deflected the ball with his elbow and I came to the decision that it was a penalty.”
As per Sky Sports News, an investigation from the German FA’s sports court came to the conclusion that Bellingham’s comments were deemed as ‘unsportsmanlike conduct.’
As a result, the midfielder has been fined €40,000 (£33,970) but will not be suspended, meaning he will be available for Dortmund’s Bundesliga away trip to VFL Bochum on Saturday.
Despite receiving no suspension from the German FA, Bellingham is still the subject of a police investigation after a ‘criminal complaint’ was filed by former referee, Marco Haase.
Related links:
- Jude Bellingham subject of ‘criminal complaint’ following scathing referee criticism
- Bellingham and Haaland criticise refereeing performance after Bayern Munich defeat
- Gary Neville confirms that Erling Haaland won’t be appearing on Monday Night Football
