Poland’s Szymon Marciniak will referee the 2022 FIFA World Cup final match between Argentina and France on Sunday in Doha.
The 41-year-old, who made his FIFA World Cup debut four years ago, will be joined by assistants Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz.
Listkiewicz’s father, Michał Listkiewicz, officiated in the FIFA World Cup final in 1990 and at the FIFA World Cup 1994.
Marciniak has already overseen matches involving both final teams at the tournament —- Argentina’s last-16 win over Australia and France’s group-stage victory against Denmark
Szymon Marciniak (Polish pronunciation: [ˈʂɨmɔn marˈt͡ɕiɲak]; born 7 January 1981) is considered one of the most highly-rated Polish referees. He refereed the 2018 UEFA Super Cup Final and has been appointed to take charge of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final between Argentina and France on 18 December 2022 in Lusail, Qatar.
Marciniak was born in 1981 in Płock, Poland. He began his career as a football referee at the age of 21. Initially, he combined refereeing football matches with playing as an amateur footballer. In 2006, he switched to working as a football referee professionally.
He refereed his first match in the top Polish professional league in 2009 at the GKS Bełchatów stadium. Since then, he has refereed more than 200 matches in Ekstraklasa having been appointed the head referee in the 2016 Polish Cup final match as well as the 2017 Polish SuperCup final.
Marciniak became a FIFA listed referee in 2011. The same year, he also debuted as a referee in the Europa League in the qualifying match between Aalesunds FK and Ferencvárosi TC. In 2012, he refereed his first match in the Champions League between FK Ventspils and Molde FK. He refereed at 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, beginning with the Group F match between Portugal and Azerbaijan.
On 30 June 2015 he was the head referee at the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final.
He participated in the UEFA Euro 2016 and refereed three matches: Spain-Czech Republic and Iceland-Austria in the group stage of the tournament as well as Germany-Slovakia in the knockout phase.
On 29 March 2018, FIFA announced that he would officiate some matches at 2018 FIFA World Cup along with Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz as assistant referees. He officiated two group stage matches: Argentina-Iceland and Germany-Sweden. He was also selected as the head referee in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup final match between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
On 19 May 2022, he was selected to officiate matches at the FIFA World Cup 2022. On 15 December 2022, it was announced that he would officiate the World Cup Final between Argentina and France, becoming the first Polish referee to do so
