Just hours after Algeria filed a complaint over inconsistent refereeing in their game against Argentina, another high-profile game involving the hosts, the USA, was riddled with similar controversial decisions. USA held on to register a massive 2-0 victory against Australia and punched their ticket to the knockout stages. However, a chaotic World Cup debut from the match official that resulted in a seven-yellow-card barrage took some shine off the victory.

The 45-year-old German referee, Felix Zwayer, was issuing yellow cards left, right, and center during the game. With seven yellow cards, the game became the highest-carded game of the World Cup so far. However, many fans felt that the referee was getting easily influenced by the home crowd at a sold-out Seattle Stadium.

“Extremely poor and biased refereeing in the match. The referee is turning a blind eye to the fouls made by the USA team. USA is clearly getting the home advantage here,” a fan wrote.

The USA committed 12 fouls during the match while Australia was penalized 16 times. Besides, there were multiple collisions, which were waived off by the referee.

Part of the FIFA-listed official list since 2012, Zwayer worked at the 2018 World Cup as VAR, but it took him eight more years to step onto the pitch as a central referee. Towards the end of the game, he had a severe cramp and needed help from USA’s Folarin Balogun and Australia’s Aiden O’Neill to stretch his left leg. Fourth official Katia Garcia carried energy gel onto the pitch for the referee as he carried on.

“Felix Zwayer, the German referee for the USA vs Australia game, joins the list (quoting a list of two other poor referees). He basically makes the US bench influence all his decisions; very poor,” a fan said, showing no sympathy as Zwayer was blasted for being easily swayed by the home bench.

Byron Moreno, an Ecuadorian referee, was similarly intimidated by the home crowd during South Korea’s miraculous run to the semifinals in 2002. The hosts caused quite an upset when they beat Italy 2-1 through a golden goal in the round of 16. Moreno’s decision to award an early penalty to South Korea, book Francesco Totti for simulation, and disallow a potential Italian golden goal due to an offside call made it one of the most controversial games ever.

“Felix Zwayer has completely lost it. He has fallen for the American theatrics. Bulls**t yellow for Souttar, who did nothing wrong, & a ghost foul called on Irankunda, who was just contesting the ball. He should never ref another World Cup game ever again,” a fan called for an end to Zwayer’s debut World Cup campaign as he felt legitimate fouls were not given.

Similar complaints emerged as another fan accused Zwayer of “reffing one team here.” Until now, the 2025 Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur was the biggest game in Zwayer’s career, but that will have changed now,

One fan even insinuated match-fixing, comparing Zwayer to NRL referee Ashley Klein, who faced gambling-related sanctions.

Zwayer was involved in a match-fixing scandal during his early refereeing career. He became a whistle-blower to expose Robert Hoyzer, a lead referee who took bribes during his 2. Bundesliga spell in 2005. Zwayer was handed a six-month ban for his involvement in the scandal.

The incident haunted Zwayer throughout his career as the then Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham infamously said: “You give a referee that has match-fixed before the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect?” after his team’s controversial 3-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Der Klassiker 2021.

Fans view the game from their emotion-tinted glass and are often unfiltered in their opinions about referees, who are bound to neutrality even in front of a hostile crowd. In the era of VAR and semi-automated offside, any clear and obvious error of the referee will certainly be rectified, giving the referee a certain safety net.

But that was not the case during the recently concluded Argentina-Algeria match in the FIFA World Cup.

Algeria files complaint to FIFA over indifferent refereeing

At first glance, Argentina’s 3-0 victory against Algeria seems like smooth sailing. Lionel Messi scored a fantastic hat-trick as the defending champions opened their account at this edition. But the complaint was that Messi shouldn’t have been on the pitch at all to finish his hat-trick.

Messi scored a goal in the seventeenth minute but was under the scanner when he caught defender Aissa Mandi from behind in the 31st minute. It was high on the back side of the calf and Achilles tendon and could’ve easily been a red card. The Polish referee Szymon Marciniak settled for a warning as he didn’t even issue a yellow card.

Algerian fans inside the stadium and plenty more online were outraged that VAR failed to intervene and book Messi. It raised questions that big players were refereed differently.

“By the letter of the law, that is a red. If I had seen it like that on the pitch, I would have shown red. If the referee had shown red, it definitely would not have been overturned,” former Bundesliga referee Patrick Ittrick told broadcaster Magenta TV.

Algeria alleged that another incident involving Alexis MacAllister, who caught Ibrahim Maza with a raised elbow, was also ignored. They took these incidents to FIFA’s notice.

It remains to be seen if Australia too adopts a similar route if they felt the referee’s indecisiveness truly impeded them.