He missed the EM 2021 because of a heart disease as a result of a corona infection. “That was very bitter for me as a referee in my prime,” says the 41-year-old. The fact that he has now been nominated for a World Cup final makes him all the happier: “Sometimes life takes something from you and later pays it back twice.”
Marciniak will be supported by his two compatriots Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz. For the latter, the endgame has a very special background. Because in the 1990 World Cup final in Rome between Germany and Argentina, his father Michal Listkiewicz was on the line, the referee was the Mexican Edgardo Codesal Méndez, who imposed a controversial penalty for the Germans. Fixed teams of three from one and the same country have only existed since the 2006 World Cup in Germany.