Jude Bellingham fined €40,000 over comments on referee Felix Zwayer after Der Klassiker
By Tushar Bahl
Jude Bellingham has been fined €40,000 but has avoided a ban over his comments on referee Felix Zwayer following Borussia Dortmund’s 3-2 defeat to Bayern Munich last weekend.
The German Football Association (DFB) has handed Jude Bellingham a fine of €40,000 for the comments he made about referee Felix Zwayer following Borussia Dortmund’s 3-2 defeat in Der Klassiker last weekend. Bellingham questioned the appointment of Zwayer for the biggest game in German football, and also referred to the fact that the referee was found guilty of match fixing in 2005.
The Borussia Dortmund bosses came out in full support of Bellingham a day after his comments, with both CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke and sporting director Michael Zorc saying that he was merely stating a fact that is well known to the public.
There were calls from some to hand Bellingham a ban for his comments. But the 18 year old has only been fined and will be available for Borussia Dortmund’s Bundesliga clash against VfL Bochum this weekend. The DFB adjudged Bellingham’s comments to be unsportsmanlike. Borussia Dortmund and Bellingham have already accepted the decision and the verdict is final.
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Referee Felix Zwayer received plenty of criticism for some of his decisions during Der Klassiker last weekend. Most notably, he failed to award Borussia Dortmund what looked like a stonewall penalty in the second half. And he followed that up by giving Bayern a spot-kick for an inadvertent handball from Mats Hummels. Lewandowski made no mistake from the penalty spot and that goal proved to be the winner for Bayern.