Szymon Marciniak, who refereed the World Cup final in Qatar, has won the traditional International Federation of Football Historians and Statisticians (IFFHS) poll for the best referee of 2022.
Szymon Marciniak was clearly the best in the voting. The 42-year-old referee from Płock scored 150 points and was ahead of the winner of the 2020 poll, Italian Daniele Orsato – 65 and Frenchman Clement Turpin – 40.
Polish arbiter’s talent was recognised
“He became the first Polish referee to take in charge a World Cup Final just one year after he was forced to miss the Euro due to some health issues. What an achievement for Szymon Marciniak,” the organization wrote.
The next highest scorers were England’s Michael Oliver with 35 points, South Africa’s Victor Gomes with 25 and Slovenia’s Slavko Vincic with 20.
The IFFHS, which has been in existence since 1984, studies football history and keeps statistics. The organisation organises annual plebiscites in various categories. Awards for the past year included Real Madrid’s Belgian Thibaut Courtois in the ‘best goalkeeper’ category, with Wojciech Szczesny coming sixth, Argentina’s Lionel Messi as the best footballer, his national team coach Lionel Scaloni was named best national team coach and the winner of this award among club coaches was Italy’s Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid.
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