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“18 December 2022 will go down in history as the day on which the World Cup final was refereed best. It was fascinating to watch Marciniak and the Polish team at work,” portal Law 5 wrote. Szymon Marciniak’s team, who led Argentina’s final clash against France today, is receiving praise from everywhere for their attitude.
“All the major decisions were made correctly, there was no need to use VAR, control of the match, technical skill, or giving advantages. It was beautiful!” was also written on the portal.
After at least yesterday’s match for bronze, in which the Qatari referee did not cope, Marciniak’s performance was a nice change. Words of praise were not lacking from other quarters either.
“Respect and words of appreciation to our referees, who did an exemplary job in an amazing World Cup final! World-class” wrote PZPN (Polish Football Association – ed.) president Cezary Kulesza on Twitter. The president had already posted a photo of himself with the Polish referees on social media a few hours earlier, writing at the time:
“Our excellent refereeing team led by Szymon Marciniak is ready for the grand final of the World Cup! This will be a historic day for the Polish refereeing community and the entire PZPN. Gentlemen, do your job and show your class once again! We are proud of you!”
Full referee line-up for the final match: main referee - Szymon Marciniak (Poland) line judge 1 - Paweł Sokolnicki (Poland) line judge 2 - Tomasz Listkiewicz (Poland) assistant referee - Ismail Elfath (USA) VAR team leader - Tomasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) VAR assistant - Juan Soto (Venezuela) VAR assistant for offsides - Kyle Atkins (USA) VAR assistant - Fernando Guerrero (Mexico).
Szymon Marciniak today became the first-ever Polish referee of a World Cup football final.