It was a disappointing start to the week for Robert Lewandowski, who had to digest the realisation that although he clearly deserves to have won at least two Ballon D'Ors, he will now probably finish his career with none. Apparently smashing Gerd Müller's untouchable Bundesliga goalscoring record and winning the German league and cup double doesn't match up to winning the Copa America with Argentina while being called Lionel Messi.
At least the weekend gave Lewandowski the chance to take out his frustrations on Borussia Dortmund, the club he left on a free transfer in 2014 and has punished so horribly ever since, with 24 goals in 24 matches against them.
Roared on by a crowd cut to 20 per cent capacity by Covid restrictions, Dortmund took the lead after five minutes through Julian Brandt, but Lewandowski equalised almost immediately after Thomas Müller pressed Mats Hummels into a defensive error. Bayern took the lead just before half-time when Raphael Guerreiro drilled a clearance straight into the unfortunate Hummels to present Kingsley Coman with an easy chance. On 48 minutes, Dortmund equalised when Erling Haaland curled a superb shot in off the post after another failed clearance, this time by Dayot Upamecano. Everything was set up for an epic second-half shootout.
Instead referee Felix Zwayer became the star, as the game turned into a horrorshow that should be watched by anyone who ever believed that VAR would be the solution to football’s ref-rage problem.
The trouble started in the 54th minute, when Dortmund’s Marco Reus played a one-two with Haaland, ran in behind Lucas Hernandez, and was bundled to the ground. A “clear penalty” as Haaland said afterwards - but not according to Zwayer, who waved away astonished Dortmund protests.
In the 77th minute, a Bayern corner seemed to be headed away by some combination of Hummels and Mauro Akanji: certainly none of the players on either side appeared to notice any foul play. But at the next stoppage, after consulting with his assistants, Zwayer went to the side of the pitch and watched several slo-mo replays showing the ball had struck Hummels on the outside of his elbow as he put his head down to try to connect with the clearance. He awarded the penalty and Lewandowski duly scored against his old club for the 26th time in 25 matches.
The combination of the way Zwayer had airily dismissed Dortmund’s claim without taking a second look, then pored over the footage of a plainly accidental handball looking for a reason to give Bayern a penalty - it was simply too much. Bayern are on course for their 10th title in a row. They dwarf all their rivals in economic terms. They don’t need help from the referees as well. Dortmund’s coach Marco Rose protested furiously and was sent off. “Again and again” tweeted Dortmund’s official account, prompting a swarm of replies lamenting the corruption of the Bundesliga. VAR doesn’t eliminate mistakes, but it does make it harder to believe the mistakes are innocent.
Afterwards, Zwayer told Sky Germany that he hadn’t needed to look at the Reus incident again, as he had already seen it perfectly in real time. It was simply a coming together of upper bodies that he decided was not worth a penalty because these days, we’re all trying to let the game flow. He said he had asked VAR if there had been “any other contact”, that is, if Hernandez had also made contact with Reus’ legs, and had been told he had not. That was unfortunate, since the replays showed that he had.
“It was a very scandal when it comes to the referee,” Haaland told Norway’s Viasat Sport after the game. “I asked him why he didn’t just go and look [at the Reus penalty claim], but he said no, there’s no need, like an arrogant... no, I have to calm down a little bit now. But yeah, he was arrogant. I will not say more.”
When even Erling Haaland is calling you arrogant, it's time for some soul-searching. It turned out Dortmund were just getting warmed up. Step forward Jude Bellingham, who proceeded to speak about Zwayer with the fearlessness of youth.
“You can look at a lot of the other decisions in the game,” Bellingham said. “You give a referee that has, you know, match-fixed before, the biggest game in Germany - what do you expect?”
You could say these comments ruffled a few feathers. "We cannot and must not allow a player to question the integrity of the referee," said Sky Germany pundit Dietmar Hamann. "I hope and assume the DFB will proceed with utmost severity... We might not see [Bellingham]in the Bundesliga again before Christmas." Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn said: "Of course, that goes a step too far. A giant step. I can't remember anyone saying anything like that before. I don't know where he got that to make such a statement."
But Bellingham hadn’t plucked the allegation out of thin air. It’s a fact that Felix Zwayer was directly involved in Germany’s biggest match-fixing scandal of the last 50 years. He was the linesman for the corrupt referee Robert Hoyzer, who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for conspiring to fix a series of lower-division and German Cup matches in 2004.
In May 2004, before a match between SV Wuppertal and Werder Bremen Amateure, the then-23-year-old Zwayer accepted €300 from Hoyzer on the understanding that he was to avoid giving marginal decisions against Wuppertal. In the event Wuppertal won the game without the officials having to award any dodgy decisions in their favour: the eventual investigation found that no manipulation had taken place. Zwayer later became one of the four whistleblowers whose evidence was to expose Hoyzer.
But the fact remains that he did accept that initial €300 bribe, and did not immediately alert the authorities to Hoyzer’s corrupt approach. For this the German FA (DFB) punished him with a six-month ban, but Zwayer was able to serve the ban while he was in any case suspended ‘for his own protection’, having stood witness against Hoyzer. Remarkably, this punishment never became public knowledge until 2014, when it was reported by the newspaper Die Zeit. Zwayer was Germany’s Referee of the Year at the time.
The DFB’s control committee has opened an investigation into Bellingham’s comments and it seems likely the 18-year old will be hit with a suspension, which will presumably teach him never again to question authority with less-than-100 per cent accuracy. But this will not prevent the DFB from looking like a second-rate organisation, presiding over a second-rate league, who are punishing a young player for rudely pointing out their inadequacy. According to DFB statistics, there are 56,680 registered referees in Germany. Surely it’s not too much to ask that the next time they choose a referee to take charge of their showpiece game, they might find one with a clean record?
