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Sport
Steven Chicken

Who is the referee for United States vs Australia? The official is alleged to have accepted a €300 bribe and served a six month ban 20 years ago

Seattle's Lumen Field.

The United States and Australia will do battle with a place at the top of Group D on the line on Wednesday afternoon, with kick-off set for midday local time (8pm UK time)

Seattle's Lumen Field will provide a home crowd for the co-hosts after they started with a 4-1 win over Paraguay, but the Socceroos will be aiming to build on their own winning start after seeing off Turkiye 2-0 in their own opener.

Here's what you need to know about the officials for this game.

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Felix Zwayer to take charge of USA vs Paraguay

Felix Zwayer refereed England's Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands (Image credit: Getty Images)

Germany's Felix Zwayer will be the referee for the United States vs Australia.

The 45 year old has been officiating since 2004, but was caught up in a match-fixing scandal that centred around another referee a year into his career, and for which Zwayer was alleged to have accepted a €300 bribe before dobbing in his colleague.

Felix Zwayer also oversaw the 2025 Europa League final (Image credit: Getty Images)

After serving a six-month ban, Zwayer resumed his career and rose to become one of Germany's top-rated officials.

Zwayer served as a VAR at the 2018 World Cup, and was the referee for last year's Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham, as well as England's Euro 2024 semi-final victory over the Netherlands.

This game will be however Zwayer's on-field debut as a World Cup referee.

Assisting Zwayer as linesmen are two fellow Germans, Robert Kempter and Christian Dietz.

The fourth official is Mexico's Katia Itzel Garcia, with her compatriot Sandra Ramirez present as the reserve official.

Felix Zwayer has been active in the German top flight since 2009, bar a two-month break in 2021/22 (Image credit: Getty Images)

The VAR booth will be led by Germany's Bastian Dankert.

Sitting alongside him to assist and support, respectively (we aren't entirely sure on the distinction between the two) are Morocco's Hamza El Fariq and the superbly-named Belgian Bram Van Driessche.

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