Szymon Marciniak will soon find out whether he will be given the chance to officiate at the World Cup final in Qatar. The Polish referee has a great chance for the greatest possible honour.
The list of referees present at the World Cup is getting shorter and shorter. At the moment they are: Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (Qatar), Hassan Mohammed (United Arab Emirates), Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria), Cesar Arturo Ramos (Mexico), Ismail Elfath (United States), Rafael Claus (Brazil), Wilton Sampaio (Brazil), Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela), Anthony Taylor (England), Daniele Orsato (Italy), Danny Makkelie (Netherlands) and Szymon Marciniak (Poland).
Marciniak has had a good World Cup, with two matches under his belt. In the group stage, he refereed the Group D blockbuster between France and Denmark. Then he officiated the last-16 match between Argentina and Australia.
On the back of this, many experts are saying that Marciniak has the best chance of refereeing the final.
Dale Johnson from ESPN wrote on Twitter: “The hot favourite has to be: Marciniak (Poland).”
Marciniak was born in 1981 in Płock and has been a referee in Poland’s top flight since 2008. He is currently the only Polish UEFA Elite class referee, a title he has held since 2015.
Before getting his refereeing badge at the age of 21, he played professionally, clocking up an impressive number of red cards. He refereed matches at Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup but was ruled out of last year’s Euros by health problems.
FIFA’s referee committee headed by legendary Italian referee Pierluigi Collina is expected to make an announcement tomorrow.