Sunday, December 5th, 2021
After criticizing referee Zwayer
Criminal charges against Dortmund’s midfield star
BVB star Jude Bellingham is threatened with replay in court after his comments to referee Felix Zwayer. A referee observer has filed a criminal complaint against the Englishman. The DFB is also investigating the youngster, who is being defended by the BVB bosses.
The top Bundesliga game now also concerns the judiciary. A referee observer from Lower Saxony has filed a criminal complaint against BVB professional Jude Bellingham and the former Bundesliga referee Manuel Graefe. It is about the penalties of insult, defamation and defamation.
The 18-year-old midfielder commented on the performance of FIFA referee Felix Zwayer in an interview with the Norwegian broadcaster. In his anger after the 2: 3 (1: 2) against Bayern, Bellingham reached deep into the Bundesliga archive and said: “You give a referee who has already postponed games the biggest game in Germany. What do you expect?”
The England international was reminiscent of one of the biggest Bundesliga scandals in history, the “Hoyzer” scandal of 2004. According to the files, Zwayer, Robert Hoyzer’s assistant at the time, was also involved in this. He is said to have accepted 300 euros from Hoyzer and was then banned for six months. The judgment against him was not published by the DFB and only became public in 2014. However, manipulation had not been proven.
The DFB also determined
The former Bundesliga referee Gräfe helped uncover the scandal in 2005 and also commented on Zwayer in an interview last summer. “Anyone who has once accepted money and kept Hoyzer’s manipulation secret for half a year shouldn’t whistle for professional football,” Gräfe said in “Zeit Magazin”. Graefe’s remarks about Zwayer could now again be his undoing. Because he was involved, if only because Bellingham “presumably can only have certain information from Manuel Graefe,” said referee observer Marco Haase ntv.de in a statement. The 50-year-old works full-time as the press spokesman for the Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Haase also commented on the Dortmund professional. “These statements apply to all referees down to the base at the district level who are on the road week after week and ensure that the game continues and that our sports fields are fair,” said Haase: “I wonder what makes someone tick himself, the other assumed something like that. “
In addition to the rather bizarre annoyance about the criminal complaint, the BVB professional is also threatened with a ban on the part of the DFB, which has already started investigations against Bellingham. “The control committee will examine the statement of the Dortmund player Jude Bellingham for its relevance to sports criminal law,” said control committee chairman Anton Nachreiner.
For Christoph Schickhardt, who has been a lawyer in football for many years, these investigations would have to be discontinued. “It is not to be followed what Bellingham said,” he told the kicker: “His statement is indecent, but not objectionable, it is clearly covered by the right to freedom of expression. It is legal, but not legitimate. Anyone who has employed something like Zwayer has to live with it. In my opinion, the DFB cannot take action against Bellingham. “
Watzke defends Bellingham
Meanwhile, the BVB youngster receives support from the BVB club management. “His sentence is not wrong, even if he doesn’t have to say it. But that’s also due to the emotionality that you have to admit to an 18-year-old,” said managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke of the “kicker”: “Jude has not offended anyone , but rather a fact. I cannot imagine that this will result in any disadvantages for him. ”
Sports director Michael Zorc also defended his player in a conversation with the SID news agency. “The boy is 18, speaks after a heated, emotional game. He names old facts, you don’t have to do that. He’s just a hot spur,” said Zorc and added: “These things are now in the world, but we are there to him. I don’t see anything problematic in terms of criminal law. “
Oliver Kahn saw it differently. The CEO of FC Bayern Munich said on Sky90: “I’m the last person who has no understanding for players. You also say things that you regret afterwards. Only, of course, that goes a step too far. A huge step.” He, too, was surprised that Bellingham, at 18 years of age, is already so well informed about league history. “I can’t remember any player ever giving anything like that. I don’t know where he got it from, how he came up with the idea to make such a statement.”