December 8 – England’s teenage midfield international Jude Bellingham has been fined €40,000 by the German Football Association for unsportsmanlike conduct after he criticised referee Felix Zwayer following his Borussia Dortmund team’s 3-2 defeat by Bayern Munich last weekend.
Bellingham, 18, questioned the appointment of Zwayer, who was banned for six months in 2005 for his part in a match-fixing scandal. Zwayer turned down Dortmund’s appeals for a penalty and later awarded Bayern a spot-kick of their own.
“You give a referee who has already match-fixing the biggest game in Germany. What do you expect?,” Bellingham had said in a tv interview.
A DFB statement read: “The sports court of the German Football Association (DFB) fined Jude Bellingham with a fine of €40,000 in single judge proceedings after the DFB control committee had brought charges for unsportsmanlike behaviour.”
Saying Bellingham had “questioned the referee’s impartiality” and would not be appealing, the DFB added: “The player of the Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund has already agreed to the judgment, the judgment is now final.”
Unconfirmed reports say Dortmund are going to pay the fine since many within the club agreed with his comments.
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