Learn Hardcore German: Der Schiedsrichter zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt und pfeift, was einige Fans unfair finden. - The referee points to the penalty spot and whistles, which some fans find unfair.

The verb zeigen by itself means to show.
When you want to say to point at / to point to something, German usually uses zeigen auf + accusative.

So zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt literally means “shows/points to the penalty spot”.

zeigen = to show
auf = on / onto / to (here: “to” in the sense of pointing)
auf etwas zeigen = to point at/to something

You cannot just say zeigt den Elfmeterpunkt here; that would sound like “shows the penalty spot”, not “points to it”. The auf is needed to express the direction of the gesture.

Why is it auf den Elfmeterpunkt and not auf dem Elfmeterpunkt?

Auf is a “two-way preposition” in German (Wechselpräposition). It can take:

dative (dem) when it describes location (where?)
accusative (den) when it describes direction (where to? / movement towards?)

Examples:

Er steht auf dem Platz. – He is standing on the field. (location → dative)
Er geht auf den Platz. – He goes onto the field. (direction → accusative)

In the sentence:

Der Schiedsrichter zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt…

the referee’s gesture is directed towards the penalty spot. That’s a direction, so auf takes the accusative: den Elfmeterpunkt, not dem Elfmeterpunkt.

What exactly does pfeift mean? Is it just “whistles” in general?

pfeifen literally means to whistle. In everyday speech, when talking about a referee, pfeifen almost always means to blow the whistle (to signal a decision in the game).

So:

Der Schiedsrichter pfeift.
→ In a football context, this is understood as “The referee blows his whistle.”

Outside of sports, pfeifen can be used in other whistling contexts:

Er pfeift ein Lied. – He whistles a song.
Der Wind pfeift. – The wind is whistling/howling.

But in this sentence about a referee and a penalty, it’s clearly blowing the whistle.

Why is there only one subject for both zeigt and pfeift? Could I say Der Schiedsrichter zeigt … und er pfeift?

Yes, you could say:

Der Schiedsrichter zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt und er pfeift…

That’s grammatically fine.

However, German (like English) often avoids repeating the subject if it’s the same for multiple verbs in one clause. So:

Der Schiedsrichter zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt und pfeift…

is smoother and more natural. Here, zeigt and pfeift form a compound predicate with the shared subject der Schiedsrichter.

What gender and case is Schiedsrichter here, and what does it literally mean?

Schiedsrichter is:

gender: masculine
case: nominative (it’s the subject of the sentence)
article + noun: der Schiedsrichter

Literally, Schiedsrichter is something like “arbiter-judge”:

Schied → related to schlichten (to arbitrate, settle a dispute)
Richter → judge

So der Schiedsrichter is the referee (in sports), the person who decides and enforces the rules during the game.

Why is there a comma before was?

The comma is there because was einige Fans unfair finden is a subordinate clause (Nebensatz).

German comma rules:

Main clause (Hauptsatz): verb is in second position → Der Schiedsrichter zeigt… und pfeift, …
Subordinate clause (introduced e.g. by dass, weil, obwohl, was, der/die/das as relative pronouns, etc.): the finite verb goes to the end and the clause is separated by a comma.

So:

…, was einige Fans unfair finden.

is a subordinate clause referring back to the main clause. Hence the required comma before was.

What is was doing here? It doesn’t seem to mean “what” as a question word.

Here was is not a question word (what?). It’s a relative pronoun.

In this sentence, was refers to the entire preceding situation, i.e. the whole action “Der Schiedsrichter zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt und pfeift”.

So:

Der Schiedsrichter zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt und pfeift, was einige Fans unfair finden.
→ “The referee points to the penalty spot and blows his whistle, which some fans find unfair.”

English uses which for this kind of reference; German often uses was as a relative pronoun when it refers to:

a whole preceding clause or situation:
- Er hat im letzten Spiel drei rote Karten verteilt, was viele Zuschauer schockiert hat.
a neuter pronoun like alles, nichts, etwas, vieles:
- Er hat alles getan, was er konnte.

So here was = “which (thing that he does)”, pointing back to the entire main clause.

Why is the word order was einige Fans unfair finden and not was einige Fans finden unfair?

Because was einige Fans unfair finden is a subordinate clause (introduced by the relative pronoun was). In German subordinate clauses, the finite verb goes to the end of the clause.

So the structure is:

Connector/relative pronoun: was
Subject: einige Fans
Adjective complement: unfair
Finite verb at the end: finden

→ was / einige Fans / unfair / finden

In a main clause, you could say:

Einige Fans finden das unfair. (verb in second position)

But in a subordinate clause introduced by was, you must move finden to the end:

…, was einige Fans unfair finden.

How does finden work here with unfair? Is it like English “to find something unfair”?

Yes, it’s very similar to English.

Structure in German:

jemand findet etwas + Adjektiv
- Ich finde das gut. – I find that good / I like that.
- Wir fanden den Film langweilig. – We found the film boring.
- Sie finden das unfair. – They find that unfair.

In the sentence:

…was einige Fans unfair finden.

the “etwas” (the “thing” they find unfair) is the whole earlier action (“showing to the penalty spot and whistling”), and it’s implied rather than repeated. So it means:

“..., which some fans consider to be unfair.”

So finden + Adjektiv is very common in German to express opinions about something.

What’s the difference between einige Fans, manche Fans, and ein paar Fans?

All three can translate as “some fans”, but there are nuances:

einige Fans
- Neutral, fairly standard.
- Indicates more than just a few, but not many; an indefinite number.
- Often used in written German.
- Roughly: “some fans / several fans”.
manche Fans
- Often suggests “some (but not all), and maybe more than you’d think”.
- Can sometimes feel a bit more general or slightly more “commenting”.
- Could be translated as “some fans” or “certain fans”.
ein paar Fans
- Literally “a few fans”.
- Tends to sound more like a small number, more colloquial.
- Like English “a few” rather than just “some”.

In this sentence, einige Fans is a neutral, standard way to say “some fans” without strongly suggesting it’s only a tiny number.

Why is Elfmeterpunkt written as one word in German?

German routinely forms compound nouns by joining words together.

elf Meter – eleven meters (the distance for a penalty kick)
der Elfmeter – the penalty kick (in football)
der Punkt – the spot / point

When we talk about the penalty spot, German forms a compound:

der Elfmeterpunkt – literally “the penalty-kick-spot”

German spelling rules say that such noun compounds are generally written as one word, not separately:

Fußballplatz (football pitch), not Fußball Platz
Schiedsrichterassistent (assistant referee), not Schiedsrichter Assistent
Elfmeterpunkt, not Elfmeter Punkt

Is unfair just the English word “unfair” used in German, and is it common?

Yes, unfair in German is a loanword from English, but it’s now completely standard and very common.

It means exactly what you expect:

Das ist unfair. – That is unfair / That’s not fair.
Sie finden die Entscheidung unfair. – They think the decision is unfair.

In sports, it’s absolutely normal to talk about unfaire Entscheidungen, unfaires Verhalten, etc. There are older or more formal native options like ungerecht (unjust), but unfair is perfectly idiomatic modern German.

Could the sentence be written as “…, was unfair ist” instead of “…, was einige Fans unfair finden”? What difference would that make?

You could say:

Der Schiedsrichter zeigt auf den Elfmeterpunkt und pfeift, was unfair ist.

This means:

“The referee points to the penalty spot and blows his whistle, which is unfair.”

That version states the unfairness as an objective fact.

The original:

…, was einige Fans unfair finden.

makes it clear that this is only the opinion of some fans, not necessarily an objective truth. It’s a more neutral, report-like formulation:

“..., which some fans consider unfair.”

So the original sentence carefully frames the unfairness as subjective, belonging to the fans’ point of view.