German football rocked by scandal

Robert Hoyzer is the referee behind the worst crisis German football has known for decades.

The referee's confession that he fixed games has stunned the country - just as it is preparing to host next year's World Cup.

Mr Hoyzer has admitted rigging a cup match last August.

First he sent off Hamburg's star striker Emile Mpenza for no obvious reason after the home side had gone 2-0 ahead.

"It's not good but I'm not surprised. Money is more important for a lot of people"
Amateur football player

Then he gave two penalties to their lowly opponents Paderborn on the most flimsy of pretexts.

Hamburg's players complained of bias - and they were right.

Hoyzer later admitted he was paid to make sure the underdogs won.

"This isn't only a question of image, this is a question of trust," said Peter Danckert of the German parliament's Committee for Sport.

"How can you go to a football match today? Maybe you're thinking the referee is influenced by some money man."

Easy money

The centre of the scandal is not a football stadium. It is a rather innocuous-looking Berlin café where Hoyzer used to be a regular along with a number of other referees and top-flight players.

He says this is where the deals were done to fix the outcome of matches.

As well as the Cup match, he has admitted to fixing the outcome of several other games, saying he was bribed by Croatian gangsters.

His lawyer, Stephan Holthoff-Pfortner, says he has now provided the names of other referees and players involved in this affair. He says they all thought it looked like easy money.

"It's quite an incentive for people to earn money in a simple and not very risky way," he said.

"You could earn a lot in a highly efficient manner just by influencing what happens in a game."

But that influence extends a long way.

I spoke to some amateur players who told me they were upset by what Hoyzer had done, but many claimed they had long suspected corruption in their sport.

"It's not good but I'm not surprised," one player told me. "Money is more important for a lot of people."

All this comes at a time when Germany is spending a fortune preparing to host next year's World Cup. The organisers have been left furious and exasperated.

"We are doing our job, preparing everything, and suddenly this unbelievable story comes out," said Wolfgang Niersbach, Vice-President of 'Germany 2006'.

Hoyzer is now in hiding, and Hamburg still bemoan their defeat.

But German supporters have now been provided with another term of abuse - when any referee makes a wrong decision, the fans chant "Hoyzer"!