Felix Zwayer, the most controversial referee in Euros history?

UEFA created a mess for themselves by appointing a convicted match-fixer as the referee for one of the two Euro 2024 semi-finals. By all accounts, Felix Zwayer is a solid referee, but to put him front and centre for one of the three biggest games in UEFA’s flagship tournament has, unsurprisingly, created a furore…

Dutch coach Ronald Koeman has slammed Zwayer in the press, saying, “This is not a penalty. His only attention was to block a shot… football is broken,” which more or less sums up Dutch sentiment towards Zwayer.

Zwayer will forever be tarnished by his involvement in a match-fixing scheme in 2005 which led to a fine and six-month ban he hasn’t done his reputation any favours (at least in the Netherlands) with a series of decisions he made in the England v the Netherlands semi-final.

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Discourse on this incident may continue well beyond Sunday’s final, with England seemingly gifted a penalty following an attempted block on a Harry Kane shot by Denzel Dumfries. Most media figures have slammed the decision, with Gary Neville calling it “disgraceful,” on ITV.

Former Dutch international Pierre van Hooijdonk told Dutch TV, “The referee and the VAR should be blacklisted, terrible!” Maybe cancel that trip to Amsterdam, Felix.

Some eagle-eyed viewers also claimed Zwayer and the VAR missed an obvious handball in the build-up to the penalty, with the ball seemingly hitting Bukayo Saka’s hand en route to Harry Kane.

Dutch captain Virgil Van Dijk was booked for his protests to the awarded penalty, with the Liverpool defender demanding referees are made to, “come here and explain themselves, like we have to do when we do something wrong,” per BeIN Sports.

Felix Zwayer has refereed three other matches during Euro 2024, Italy vs Albania, Portugal vs Turkey, and Romania vs Netherlands in the round of 16. Never shy of handing out bookings, the German official has given out at least 2 yellows to both sides in every game he has officiated, per WhoScored.

The Dutch faced Romania in the round of 16 and prevailed 3-0 with goals from Cody Gakpo and Donyell Malen proving the difference, for want of throwing fuel on the fire, Zwayer’s previous controversies and refereeing abilities didn’t become the focus of Dutch hatred following that game for whatever reason…

Whether you believe it was a penalty or not, UEFA putting a referee with a match-fixing conviction in charge of such an important game puts them and him in an awkward position. It is avoidable and only creates headlines all involved would rather not see.

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