In December 2020, nothing seemed further away for Szymon Marciniak than the 2022 World Cup final. For nine months, the Pole later said in an interview, he successfully ran away from the virus, but then “was too slow”. Marciniak fell ill with a severe course of Covid. It took him months to recover, he suffered from a protracted cough and tachycardia, an increase in heart rate that initially prevented him from playing at European level. Before the EM 2021, the big disappointment followed: Uefa did without one of the best referees on the continent at their biggest tournament, Marciniak had to stay at home and first work his way back into focus – and now, a year and a half later, gets the largest possible stage .
In the final between Argentina and France, Marciniak gets to referee a team of two Poles on the sidelines (Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz) and an American as fourth official (Ismail Elfath). It is the high point of his refereeing career and at the same time the end of a period of suffering: “It has been a difficult time for me in the last year and a half,” said Marciniak in a statement.
Marciniak has refereed both teams in the tournament
The final is his third appearance in the current tournament, and the Pole got to know both final teams: France in the 2-1 win over Denmark in the group stage and Argentina in the round of 16 in a 2-1 win against Australia. As a referee, Marciniak cultivates a communicative style, he is seen as someone who develops a close connection to the players and explains his decisions – albeit not in as long speeches as some other referees at the World Cup. You can’t exactly accuse him of pettiness: Marciniak usually lets the game go on instead of resolutely whistling back.
The Pole is already well known in the desert state, as he often referees games in the Qatari and Saudi Arabian leagues. Otherwise he lives in the Polish Ekstraklasa, where he has been whistling since 2009. Marciniak started his career at 21, he says after seeing a red card in a lower-league game and complaining about it – only to hear the referee tell him to do better if he could. Marciniak put that into practice, gave up his playing career and, via the Polish leagues, became one of the top referees of Uefa and later Fifa.
He is regularly used in the Champions League and Europa League, most recently in the semi-final first leg between Liverpool FC and Villareal FC in the 2021/22 season. At international tournaments, he officiated at Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018 – in the latter case the German national team’s 2-1 victory over Sweden in the group stage. He made his debut in an international final in 2018 in the Uefa Super Cup between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. So now the World Cup final, in which he prevailed against numerous colleagues such as the Dutchman Danny Makkelie – colleague Stéphanie Frappart, who was the first woman to play at the World Cup, had no chance of playing due to the French participation in the final.
Marciniak’s return to the top of the world isn’t the only special story within the Finals refereeing team, however. In a way, linesman Listkiewicz even follows a family tradition: his father Michal was also on duty at a World Cup final in Rome in 1990. Listkiewicz Senior was on the pitch with Mexico’s Edgardo Codesal as boss when Diego Maradona lost the final to Germany with Argentina. Now it’s Listkiewicz Junior’s turn with the next-generation legend: he gets to face Lionel Messi on Sunday.