Four referees blew whistle on suspect colleague

The complaint that sparked Germany's biggest football scandal in more than 30 years came from four Bundesliga referees, who said this week they acted to avoid damage to the sport.

Referee Robert Hoyzer, who has denied any wrongdoing, is suspected by the German Football Association (DFB) of betting on Hamburg SV's Cup defeat by SC Paderborn last August and manipulating the result.

Last Wednesday, Lutz Froehlich, Manuel Graefe, Olaf Blumenstein and Felix Zwayer, all Bundesliga referees, revealed to the DFB information they had about Hoyzer, who resigned on Friday.

The four released a statement on Tuesday explaining their actions and said they were making no accusations against their former colleague.

"In connection with the accusations against Robert Hoyzer, we can state that various pieces of evidence, information and witness statements relating to the games and refereeing of Robert Hoyzer were available to us, which gave us cause to inform the heads of the refereeing committee last Wednesday," the statement said.

"Based on the information we had, and direct comments by Robert Hoyzer to his refereeing colleague Felix Zwayer, we saw an urgent need for an investigation to avoid possible damage to German football and Germany's refereeing system.

"We believe we acted in the interests of German football.

"We emphasise that we did not accuse Robert Hoyzer of either betting on his own games or of corruption, nor did we introduce any other individuals or background into the case."

The DFB said they were looking into five other games in the second division and regional league, four of them refereed by Hoyzer.

Germany was rocked by a corruption scandal in 1971, with sanctions imposed on 53 players, two coaches, six officials and clubs Arminia Bielefeld and Kickers Offenbach.