THE REFEREE taking charge of Arsenal’s Champions League showdown with Paris Saint-Germain previously served a six-month ban for match fixing.
Felix Zwayer, 43, has been tasked with officiating Wednesday night’s semi-final second leg clash at the Parc des Princes.
The German is one of Uefa’s top-ranked referees and took charge of England’s semi-final win over the Netherlands at last summer’s Euros.
Zwayer now faces another major night as Arsenal look to come back from their 1-0 loss to PSG in the first leg.
The two sides are set to go hammer and tongs in search of a place in the final against either Barcelona or Inter Milan.
But ahead of kick-off, Zwayer’s chequered past has now come to light.
In 2005, he was punished for accepting a bribe from fellow ref Robert Hoyzer.
Zwayer was a linesman at the time and took £250 to fix a second division match in Germany.
An investigation revealed that Hoyzer had been accepting money from a Croatian gambling syndicate connected to an organised crime group.
He was banned from football for life while also receiving a prison sentence of two years and five months.
As for Zwayer, he was suspended from football for six months before returning to eventually become a Bundesliga ref in 2009.
His bribery scandal has not gone unnoticed by players though, with Jude Bellingham referencing it while blasting Zwayer for a controversial penalty decision against former club Borussia Dortmund.
Speaking after a defeat to rivals Bayern Munich three years ago, Bellingham said: “For me it wasn’t a penalty. You can look at a lot of the other decisions in the game.
“You give a referee that has, you know, match fixed before, the biggest game in Germany – what do you expect?”
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