A German referee claims he received an online death threat after Jude Bellingham called attention to his history of alleged match fixing.
Bellingham, 18, held nothing back in an eye-opening post-match interview after Borussia Dortmund lost 3-2 at home to bitter rivals Bayern Munich in early December.
The hosts were furious after Bayern were awarded a late penalty to win the match following a handball by Mats Hummels, with manager Marco Rose sent off for his vehement protests.
Robert Lewandowski made no mistake from 12 yards to win Der Klassiker for the defending Bundesliga champions, who moved further clear at the top of the table.
Tempers continued to flare after the final whistle and Bellingham made reference to match official Felix Zwayer's involvement in a notorious scandal which shamed German football in early 2005.
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The England international told ViaPlay : "You give a referee that, you know, has match-fixed before the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect?
"For me, it wasn't [a penalty]. He [Hummels] is not even looking at the ball and he's fighting to get it and it hits him. You can look at a lot of the decisions in the game."
Zwayer was suspended from refereeing for six months 17 years ago after an incident involving a former 2. Bundesliga referee, although his involvement was not proved.
Robert Hoyzer took bribes to fix numerous games he officiated and Zwayer, while serving as his assistant referee, purportedly received €300 (£250) to favour minnows Wuppertaler SV during a fixture.
Zwayer and three others later reported Hoyzer to the German Football Association, and the 40-year-old has subsequently rebuilt his career to become a FIFA and UEFA elite category referee.
Bellingham, meanwhile, received a €40,000 (£33,000) fine for his fiery post-match comments, but the fallout from the interview is still unfolding.
Zwayer - who continues to deny his involvement in match fixing - claims he received a death threat and opened up on the toll it has taken on him and his wife during an interview with Sky Sport Germany.
"A lot of messages have been received on my official email account that are incredible and that are also very difficult to handle," he said.
"I was contacted by the Berlin police that there is a death threat against me on the Internet. These are things that I could not hide from my wife, especially because they got incredibly close to me."
Zwayer added: "What happens when you are scheduled for an international game three days later... and try to say goodbye to the woman like the past 10 or 15 years and then you can see her burst into tears, not because she misses me when I'm away, but because she worries about me and maybe also about what happens at home.
"This is a situation that is very difficult to bear, to be honest."
