Dutch legend Pierre van Hooijdonk has called for referee Felix Zwayer to be ‘blacklisted’ following England’s Euro 2024 win over Netherlands with Rafael van der Vaart launching an extraordinary attack on the Three Lions.
England will meet Spain in the Euro 2024 final on Sunday in Berlin after Ollie Watkins’ 90th minute winner sealed a 2-1 win in the most dramatic of circumstances on Wednesday night.
Gareth Southgate’s side fought back having fallen behind after seven minutes thanks to a stunning effort from Xavi Simons.
England were gifted a penalty 10 minutes later when Denzel Dumfries attempted to block Harry Kane’s shot, judged to have clipped the England captain in the process. A VAR review resulted in referee Zwayer overturning his original decision and awarding the spot kick, which Kane coolly converted.
Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk slammed the decision and accused the match officials of refusing to speak to Dutch players after the final whistle. Head coach Ronald Koeman also blasted the penalty decision, declaring ‘football is broken’.
Former Dutch players have also been queuing up to vent their fury Ex-striker can Hooijdonk, who had memorable spells at Celtic and Nottingham Forest, has demanded last night’s referee be banned from major matches in the future.
‘They [England] can thank Felix Zwayer. He really needs to be blacklisted. Terrible,’ van Hooijdonk told NOS. ‘Also in the second half. A duel with Cody Gakpo where he simply blew his whistle again, ten meters from the linesman. Those are moments that were crucial in this match.
‘Where England was much better in the first half, the Netherlands really had the better of the game in the second half. The Dutch team did not come in front of the opponent’s goal much, but it was balanced.
‘We can talk about it at length, but if you’re going to award a penalty for this. Then you could end up with eight of them on the spot in the final. Really terrible.’
Van der Vaart, the former Real Madrid and Tottenham star and now an outspoken pundit on Dutch television was also incandescent with rage, taking aim at England who he described as ‘a s**t team’.
‘I was getting so worked up about those English guys,’ he said. ‘What a s**t team they are. Slowly, it just moved a bit. They didn’t really want to do anything anymore. We didn’t do much either, but luckily we did again at the end. Then you started to get some chances. Maybe I’m a bit emotional, but there could have been so much more.
‘I find it really unbelievable. When you see that second half, in a semi-final, and then such a lousy team. Such top players on the field and I think they played well for half an hour. Then keep going, show that you are the best.
‘At a certain point you just felt that the Netherlands were getting better and better. We were getting more and more out of it. We had two, three chances if they played it out a bit better. And then in the last second…’