The appointment of referees for the decisive match of the tournament in Qatar looks strange and illogical.
On December 18, the final match of the World Cup will be held at the National Stadium in Lusail. Argentina and France will face each other in the decisive game. The attention of the fans will be focused on the struggle of the best teams on the planet and, of course, on the confrontation between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
The quality of the spectacle and the fairness of the outcome will largely depend on the work of the referees. Therefore, the appointment to the main match of the four-year anniversary of the Pole Szymon Marciniak looks as strange as possible.
Politics intervened once more?
From hopelessness
Even at the start of the World Cup, the main contenders for serving the final match of the tournament were Mateu Laos (Spain), Danny Makkeli (Netherlands), Anthony Taylor (England), Alireza Fagani (Iran) and Wilton Sampaio (Brazil). The candidacy of Laos was dropped following the quarter-final match between Argentina and the Netherlands, as Mateu’s refereeing in this game was considered unsatisfactory.
Makkeli will not be able to referee the final due to the elimination of the Netherlands following the match with Argentina. Englishman Taylor – because of the defeat of his team in the quarterfinals with the French. Fagani’s services were abandoned following the group stage due to a gross refereeing error in the Portugal-Uruguay match. Sampaio formally does not contradict any FIFA criteria, but it was not he who received the high honor to work in the main match of the tournament, but Szymon Marciniak from Poland. However, this appointment looks dubious on several grounds.
Who is Shimon Marciniak
Marciniak received FIFA referee status in 2011, and his first major appointments were World Cup qualifiers in 2014 and European competitions. A year later, the Pole was entrusted with the final of the World Youth Championship, following which his career went uphill. At Euro 2016, Marciniak served in the group stage matches Spain – Czech Republic and Iceland – Austria, as well as the game ⅛ finals Germany – Slovakia.
Four years later, at the World Championships in Russia, Shimon received appointments for the Argentina-Iceland and Germany-Sweden matches. In the same year, he also worked at the UEFA Super Cup “Real” – “Atletico”. Marciniak missed Euro 2020 due to the consequences of the coronavirus disease, and at the current World Cup in Qatar he adjudicated two matches: France – Denmark (2:1) in the group stage and Argentina – Australia (2:1) in the 1/8 finals. Interestingly, both games were won by the future finalists of the tournament.
It would seem that Marciniak’s track record does not look meager, but in comparison with most other candidates, he definitely loses. The Polish referee has no experience in large and significant international matches. Moreover, no European referee has worked at a World Cup final since 1994 without experience officiating a Champions League final.
However, the most controversial appointment of Marciniak is the fact that his Poland in the ⅛ finals flew just from France. It turns out that Makkeli cannot work at the match of his team’s offenders, but Marcinyak is allowed to. In addition, the presence of a European referee in a match where a European team plays with a representative of another continent also looks like a conflict of interest.
In general, the appointment of this referee for the 2022 World Cup final came from hopelessness – Shimon has no merit for such a chance, it’s just that all the other candidates either worked poorly or are not suitable due to the fair play criteria. So far, FIFA’s decision looks like a nightmare. I wonder how it will be assessed by the results of the final match.
