Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham could be in trouble for his comments regarding referee Felix Zwayer after the club’s 3-2 defeat against Bayern Munich.
The 18-year-old midfielder questioned the integrity of the referee and highlighted the fact that he was banned for six months for a match-fixing scandal back in 2005.
Felix Zwayer denied multiple appeals from Dortmund for a penalty before handing out a spot-kick to Bayern Munich during the game and Bellingham was upset with the officiating.
The England international midfielder revealed that Zwayer should never have been given the chance to officiate the biggest match in Germany because of his match-fixing history.
Bellingham said via BBC: “You give a referee, that has match fixed before, the biggest game in Germany. What do you expect?”
“For me, it wasn’t [a penalty]. He [Hummels] is not even looking at the ball and he’s fighting to get it and it hits him,” added Bellingham.
“You can look at a lot of the decisions in the game.”
According to BBC Sport, the DFB control committee has now written to the midfielder asking him to explain his statements as soon as possible. The midfielder is now set to be investigated by the control committee and it will be interesting to see what they decide.
According to reports from Kicker, the midfielder could be handed a harsh punishment because of his remarks and he could be banned for up to six months.
Bellingham has been a key player for Borussia Dortmund ever since his move to the Bundesliga and losing him for several months would be a devastating blow for the club.
Dortmund are still in the title race despite the defeat against Bayern at the weekend and they will need key players like Bellingham firing on all cylinders in order to close the gap in the coming weeks.
The German outfit are fully supportive of their player and they recently backed him publicly despite his comments.
“It was a very emotional situation, he was very disappointed and only named known facts,” Zorc told Ruhr News via BBC.
Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke added: “To be clear, Jude was not spreading lies, but what happened in the past.
“This statement shouldn’t have been, but I don’t see anything untrue there. I don’t expect that to have any consequences for Jude. “
