What could be the saddest ending of once a soccer topnotch referee? A lonely demise! Yes, this is what happened to former Bundesliga and Germen referee who found dead in his Munich apartment on Tuesday afternoon. The famous referee was on the peak of his career in 1980-1990, and later he became DFB spokesman. His professional career ended when he was congested with sexual allegations leveled by a lower league referee Michael Kempter who accused him of sexual offences back in 2010. However, that case created much of havoc in soccer fraternity, including the time when Kempter backed up from his own allegations leveled on the referee. Despite Kempter’s backing up, Amerell had to give up his job and became almost absent from soccer world. Since, that wrong allegation caused him loss of everything he had at that time, he had to sue Kempter for his false claims, and in a settlement; Regional High Court in Stuttgart suggested a compromise price $195,000 payable to Amerell, which Kempter agreed upon.
Since that time, Amerell had been living in a dark place, perhaps, he said in last April, “Since Febuary 1, 2010 I haven’t lived, I just exist.” Anyways, his one decade old referee career stared in 1984 from German second division matches and in just three years, he became a national level referee in Germany. His last match as referee was German Cup Final between Werder Bremen and Rot-Weiss Essen. Post referee, he changed his position and served DFB as spokesman. DFB issued a statement about his death that reads as, “According to local police commissioner Frank Hellwig, before the post-mortem there was ‘no evidence of an accident, suicide or foul play.”
Post Mortem report hints about a possible heart attack, but nothing has been confirmed by anyone officially as yet. Behind the scene, everyone believes him to have had a cardiac arrest. The final autopsy report, after accessing all the toxicological reports, is expected to come by only after minimum two weeks. There is also a probability of poisoning which can only be confirmed by matching autopsy findings with other reports. Whatever would have been the reason, it is a sad end of the life of a reputed referee who once was named as an auspicious match’s watchdog. Next few weeks will be too busy for investigating officers who are analyzing his medical reports. He left behind his wife and two daughters, may his soul rest in peace!