Why can’t misfortune like this ever happen to Big Ten football referees?

Robert Hoyzer had already lost his reputation, his job, his friends and his girlfriend. On Friday he lost any hope of a career as a referee in Germany.

Banned for life by the German Football Association (DFB), Hoyzer is the disgraced referee at the centre of the country’s worst match-rigging scandal in three decades, a saga that has embarrassed the hosts before next year’s World Cup finals.

Even though the DFB dropped a 50,000-euro ($64,620) fine imposed on Hoyzer because of his co-operation with state prosecutors and DFB investigators, the 25-year-old may still face much higher civil claims for damages from clubs and fans.