The complaint by a referee observer against the Dortmund professional footballer Jude Bellingham and the former top referee Manuel Grafe is, according to him, a private action.

Bellingham had harshly criticized referee Felix Zwayer after BVB's 3-2 defeat on Saturday in the Bundesliga top game against front runners Bayern Munich.

“You give a referee who has postponed games the biggest game in Germany.

What do you expect? ”Said the England international in a TV interview on the Norwegian broadcaster Viaplay Fotball.

The Dortmund police confirmed the receipt of the report to the German Press Agency on Monday, saying that it had been forwarded to the public prosecutor for examination.

The referee observer Marco Haase reported reports from "Spiegel" and the portal "az-online.de" as a private person in Dortmund and Berlin.

First, "Bild" reported on the ad.

The German Football Association has not yet been aware of this.

However, the Control Committee has launched an investigation against Bellingham.

He was asked to comment on his statement as soon as possible, the DFB announced on Monday.

Specifically, it is about the sentence: “You give a referee who has already postponed games the biggest game in Germany.

What do you expect? ”After the evaluation, the control committee will decide on the further progress of the procedure.

"The things are now in the world"

The 18-year-old England international had verbally attacked Zwayer, among other things, because of the controversial handball meter that Robert Lewandowski used to win Bayern.

"These statements apply to all referees down to the base at the district level, who are on the road week after week and ensure that games are maintained and that our sports fields are fair," said Haase "az-online.de".

Dortmund's club boss Hans-Joachim Watzke had verbally jumped aside Bellingham. The BVB officials took Bellingham into protection. “The boy is 18 and speaks after a heated, emotional game. He names old facts, you don't have to do that, "said sports director Michael Zorc to the Sport Information Service:" He's just a hot spur. The things are in the world now, but we stand by him. I don't see anything problematic in terms of criminal law. "

Grafe commented on the scene on Saturday evening in Dortmund for ZDF. Gräfes, according to his perception, "another just as underground as unsolidary appearance" on ZDF, would support the suspicion in his opinion, said Haase also the "Spiegel". The count, who no longer worked as a referee for reasons of age, had criticized Zwayer for his involvement in the 2005 betting scandal surrounding the former referee Robert Hoyzer.

“Anyone who once accepted money and kept Hoyzer's manipulation secret for six months shouldn't whistle professional football,” Graefe said months ago in “Zeit Magazin”. From Haase's point of view, Bellingham could not have made his statement from life experience. In 2004, according to the files, Zwayer had accepted money as an assistant from the mastermind Robert Hoyzer. He later uncovered the scandal, and despite the ban, manipulation was never proven. 

The former soccer world champions Lothar Matthäus and Kevin Großkreutz pleaded for mildness in the case of Bellingham and his verbal attack against Zwayer. His words were inappropriate in the form, found the record international player Matthäus. But you don't have to overdo it now. "For my part, he should donate a fine for a charitable cause and that's fine," recommended the 60-year-old world champion from 1990 and an expert on TV station Sky in his weekly column.

The former BVB player Großkreutz judged similarly.

One could certainly argue about the statement, maybe in retrospect he might be sorry, said the 2014 world champion in the "ran Bundesliga webshow" on Sat.1.

But football needs players who speak their minds and are types.

“The DFB should look the other way.

Everything else leads to the fact that at some point nobody says anything anymore.

That's not good for football, ”argued the 33-year-old.