In the build-up to Wednesday’s all-important clash, it emerged that Zwayer was handed a six-month ban back after being found to have accepted a £250 bribe from fellow referee Robert Hoyzer in 2005.
German publication Zeit broke the story years later and discovered that Zwayer had failed to report the incident at the time. However, the German subsequently contributed to the investigation and was found not to have made any deliberate errors during the match in question.
There had been some calls for Zwayer to be taken off the Three Lions’ semi-final and it’s understood UEFA conducted a review to whether the 43-year-old should take charge of the contest in Dortmund.
There is an added layer of context that Jude Bellingham was fined €40,000 for calling out Zwayer’s concerning history after his Borussia Dortmund side lost to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga in December 2021.
But UEFA have decided to stick with Zwayer and Southgate intends to treat the referee and his team with the same ‘respect’ that he has shown all officials across his eight-year reign.
Asked whether he had any concerns or if he had spoken to Bellingham about Zwayer, the England manager told reporters: ‘No. I think everybody knows how I deal with referees: with complete respect for every referee.
‘I know the two guys at UEFA, Roberto [Rosetti] and Bjorn [Kuipers], who have been running the referees programme, and I think they appreciate the respect we have shown as a team to officials over eight years.
‘I think there is a right way to conduct yourself towards officials.
‘I think that’s very important for the image of the game.’
Southgate added: ‘So, no, I’m not concerned about who the referee is.
‘He will be at a very high standard because that’s the way that UEFA make those decisions and the way they monitor the games that are played during the tournament.
‘For me, it’s not even a consideration.’
Southgate waited until the 78th minute to make any changes as England came from behind against Switzerland to advance to the final four via a penalty shootout.
The England manager has attracted heavy criticism from some quarters as a result of his cautious approach this summer, but he does not intend to change his way of thinking.
‘I think there are different reasons for making changes. We were happy with the way the team were playing in a couple of those games,’ he explained.
‘There was a game where we made a substitution at half-time [Conor Gallagher against Slovenia] so we don’t have a preconditioned way of operating.
‘We’re always looking at the physical freshness of the team, the balance of the team and how the team are performing individually, whether changes are actually going to improve what we’re doing or not.
They’re the assessments that we’re always making.’
While England’s quick turnaround from their quarter-final win is far from ideal, Southgate confirmed that all of his players had ‘recovered well’ and were in ‘good condition’ to take on the Netherlands.
‘It’s a strange thing in the biggest games, you get less time to prepare, less time to recover, so you would assume in the biggest matches that you have the best preparation,’ he continued.
‘But we haven’t really been able to get out on the training pitch. We’re just walking through things or covering things in meetings so there is a different physical aspect now.
‘But all the players are going into the game in good condition and have recovered well.
‘Over the next 24 hours we keep assessing people and the game will take us in a certain direction tomorrow that makes those decisions for us.’
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