Szymon Marciniak

Szymon Marciniak ( Polish: ; born 7 January 1981) is a Polish football referee. He is considered one of the best rated international referees of his generation. He has refereed the 2022 FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and France, the 2018 UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, and the 2023 UEFA Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan. In 2023 and 2024, he was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).

Early career
Marciniak was born in 1981 in Płock, Poland. The first sport he practiced in his youth was cycling. He changed this sport for football at the age of 15. He played in the junior squad of Wisła Płock claiming the fourth place at the Polish Junior Championships with the team. He also briefly played for the German Regionalliga club VfB Annaberg-Buchholz. 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 (match between GKS Bełchatów and Odra Wodzisław Śląski). Since then, he has refereed more than 300 matches in Ekstraklasa having been appointed the head referee in the 2016 Polish Cup final match as well as the 2017 Polish Super Cup.

As of 2021, he has given 1201 yellow cards (on average four yellow cards per game), 79 red cards and has awarded 131 penalty kicks in over 300 Ekstraklasa matches he has refereed.

International career
Marciniak became a FIFA 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 UEFA 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 20 March 2015, he was appointed to the UEFA Elite referee list, finding himself among the top 27 football referees in Europe. On 30 June 2015, he was the referee for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final. In March 2016, he refereed his first match in the knockout phase of the Champions League, a Round of 16 match between Real Madrid and AS Roma. One month later, he officiated the quarterfinal between Bayern Munich and S.L. Benfica.

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 Paweł Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz as assistant referees. He officiated two group stage matches: Argentina-Iceland and Germany-Sweden. He was also selected as the referee for the 2018 UEFA Super Cup final match between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.

On 15 December 2021, he was appointed to referee of the semi-final match between Qatar and Algeria (1–2) at the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup hosted by Qatar.

On 19 May 2022, he was selected to officiate matches at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He officiated one match in the group stage (France's 2–1 win over Denmark) and one match in the Round of 16 (Argentina's 2–1 victory over Australia). 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. His performance in the final was highly praised by many commentators as well as fellow referees including Pierluigi Collina, Howard Webb, Keith Hackett, Lutz Wagner and Thorsten Kinhöfer.

On 17 May 2023, he refereed the UEFA Champions League semi-final match between Manchester City and Real Madrid (4–0). Five days later, on 22 May 2023, he was appointed to referee the 2022–23 Cypriot Cup final between AEL Limassol and Omonia on 24 May, as well as the 2023 UEFA Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan on 10 June, becoming only the second referee in football history to officiate the World Cup final and the Champions League final in the same season. On 22 December 2023, Marciniak took charge of the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup Final in Jeddah between Manchester City and Fluminense FC.

At the UEFA Euro 2024, he officiated the group stage match between Belgium and Romania and a round of 16 match between Switzerland and Italy. He was also appointed the fourth official for the final match between Spain and England.

Controversies
On 1 June 2023, it was reported that three days earlier Marciniak spoke at an entrepreneur conference co-organised by Sławomir Mentzen, a right-wing libertarian politician and leader of the Confederation Liberty and Independence in Poland, who has in the past been accused of anti-semitic and anti-LGBT statements. His attendance at the event was first disclosed by the Polish anti-racist organisation Never Again. Marciniak responded to Never Again's report by releasing a statement in which he dissociated himself from the views presented by the organizer stressing that he "always puts fair play and respect for other people first". Ultimately, UEFA announced Marciniak would remain as referee for the UEFA Champions League final scheduled for 10 June.

Personal life
He has two children with wife Magdalena: a son, Bartosz (born 2003) and a daughter, Natalia (born 2012). He practices Muay Thai and plays badminton as an amateur.

In 2021, he was diagnosed with tachycardia after having recovered from COVID-19 infection, which prevented him from officiating matches at the UEFA Euro 2020.

He is the protagonist of the Canal+ documentary series entitled Sędziowie (Referees) and Na podsłuchu presenting the work of football referees. In 2022, he appeared as a guest at the Kuba Wojewódzki talk show. He also received the Personality of the Year Award in the Piłka nożna magazine plebiscite. In 2023, he appeared in the fourth episode of the 8th edition of Polsat's TV show ''Hell's Kitchen. Piekielna Kuchnia''. The same year, he was awarded the Laude Probus Medal by the council authorities of his hometown of Płock.

Awards

 * IFFHS World's Best Referee: 2022, 2023
 * Piłka nożna magazine Sports Personality of the Year Award: 2023
 * Gold Badge for Merit to Sport: 2023