L’Équipe: Referee Szymon Marciniak “did not rise to the occasion”

French sports daily L’Équipe were scathing in their review of Polish referee Szymon Marciniak’s performance in presiding over the 2022 World Cup final between France and Argentina, which ended 3-3 and was resolved on penalties in favour of the South American side, who now have 3 titles.

L’Équipe’s editor-in-chief, Vincent Duluc, did not hold back when summarising the Polish official’s performance, handing him a score of 2/10:

“The Pole Szymon Marciniak, experienced Champions’ League referee, did not rise to the occasion, even less so to his job. The penalty awarded on Angel di Maria was very soft, not too different to the one refused on Marcus Thuram, but the Polish referee in charge of VAR was not going to question his compatriot in front of the whole world, and there were several other decisions that provoked anger and incomprehension: how did Cristian Romero, responsible for so many brutal fouls, finish the match without a yellow card? How did Mr Marciniak not book the Argentinians when they chopped down counter-attacks through any means necessary, shirt pulls, cynical fouls and bangs? How was Emiliano Martinez able to grab the ball, during the penalty shootout, and throw it far away from Tchouaméni without the official intervening?”

Prior to this final, Raphaël Varane had won 15 out of the 17 finals that he’s participated in: an 88% success rate. The only finals that he lost were the Spanish Super Cup 2014 & UEFA Super Cup 2018. The referee who presided over Varane’s previous loss in that 2018 final was none other than… Szymon Marciniak.