German referee Felix Zwayer has been appointed to take charge of the title decider game between Al Ahly and Pyramids FC.
Pyramids FC are set to host Al Ahly on Monday in a game that could decide the 2023/24 Egyptian Premier League champion.
Sitting at the top of the table, Pyramids have 68 points, five ahead of second-placed Al Ahly; however, the Reds still have three games in hand.
Just last week, Al Ahly won the first leg 3-2 in a dramatic match that was refereed by Spain’s Javier Alberola Rojas.
The EFA decided to hire another foreign referee for the return leg, this time it’s Germany’s Felix Zwayer, who has a quite controversial career.
In 2005, Zwayer was implicated in a match-fixing scandal involving 2. Bundesliga referee Robert Hoyzer. He allegedly accepted a €300 bribe to avoid making critical decisions against Wuppertaler SV.
Zwayer was subsequently banned from refereeing for six months, a suspension that remained undisclosed for several years until the German newspaper Die Zeit revealed it by publishing a confidential file from the German FA.
However, that wasn’t the end of the controversy. In December 2021, Zwayer officiated a match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, where he faced heavy criticism for not awarding Dortmund a penalty and for sending off their coach, Marco Rose.
After the match, Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham referenced Zwayer’s past scandal, stating, “You give a referee that has match fixed before the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect?”
Following the controversy, Zwayer took a break from refereeing, before returning in February 2022 for a 2. Bundesliga match between Hannover 96 and SV Darmstadt, where he again faced criticism for a decision not to award a penalty.
The 43-year-old also refereed notable games like the 2023 UEFA Nations League final between Croatia and Spain, which the latter won on penalties.
The 2018 DFB-Pokal final, which Eintracht Frankfurt won over Bayern Munich, and the DFL-Supercup in the same year between Bayern Munich and Dortmund were also refereed by Zwayer.
Most recently, Zwayer took charge of four games in the Euro 2024, including two in the knockout stages, Netherlands vs Romania in the round of 16, and a semi-final clash between the Netherlands and England.