Szymon Marciniak named as first Pole to referee World Cup final with Qatari official for play-off

Marc Mayo15 December 2022

Poland's Szymon Marciniak will referee Sunday's World Cup final between Argentina and France.

The 41-year-old, who will be the first Pole to referee the final, made his World Cup debut in 2018 in Russia.

He will be joined by assistants Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz.

Marcinak has only officiated two games in Qatar and both involved the finalists, overseeing Argentina’s last-16 win over Australia and France’s 2-1 victory against Denmark.

A regular on football’s biggest stages, he was the referee in Chelsea’s dramatic Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid in April, and more recently Tottenham’s win at Marseille.

Qatari Abdulrahman Al Jassim was appointed to referee the third-place match between Croatia and Morocco at the Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday.

He will be assisted by compatriots Taleb Al Marri and Saoud Ahmed Almaqaleh.

Fifa have faced a number of issues over the officiating at the World Cup with Morocco, Argentina, England and Portugal all raising issues and the Atlas Lions launching an official complaint after their defeat to France.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

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