Robert Hoyzer had been on the DFB referee list since the start of the 2002/03 season and by 21 August 2004 had overseen twelve Bundesliga 2 matches as well as fixtures in the DFB Cup and the Regionalliga. Newspapers reported immediately after the Paderborn-HSV cup tie, after the investigations and Hoyzer’s confession, that the Berlin referee had maintained regular contact with criminal circles. DFB press chief Harald Stenger quickly confirmed that there were indications of links to a Croatian betting mafia, also based in Berlin.
Several matches, it emerged, had been systematically manipulated. On 28 January 2005, four premises in Berlin were searched and three suspects provisionally arrested. Former FIFA referee Hellmut Krug, head of the DFB refereeing department, criticised the federation’s control system, saying it had long been known within the DFB that Hoyzer had made dubious decisions.
In the cup tie between Paderborn and Hamburg, there had not even been a referee observer in the stadium. “The first round of the cup is never staffed that way. Only Bundesliga matches always have observers who file written reports,” Krug said.
