Szymon Marciniak. His name has entered into posterity in France for his whistles during the final of the World Cup 2022 between France andArgentine. And who cares if most of them were relevant. Indeed, the Polish referee was unanimous abroad and even received the congratulations of Pierluigi Collina, the chief expert of the FIFAbut he still wanted to respond to criticism from France (and in particular from the team) on some contentious decisions in a press conference.
Marciniak began by kindly chambering – rightly – all the papers of the French press (including ours) who demanded the cancellation of Messi’s second goal (that of 3-2), because some teammates of the Argentinian had entered the field upstream, under Law 3, paragraph 9.
“What was the impact of the guys getting up and jumping on the pitch? It’s looking for the little beast, it’s not very serious ” first replied the Pole, before continuing by showing a photo of several French players already on the ground when Mbappé equalized in regulation time. “The rules of the game are not a penal code. You cannot literally analyze everything. The most important is the spirit of the game. For example, there is a rule that play cannot continue without a corner flag. Imagine that the flag is broken and there is no more reserve. Well I should say that on page 30 of the rules there is such a provision and that we are canceling the Worlds final? »
Szymon Marciniak then confided that he preferred to rely on post-match reactions, when the French, he said, came to congratulate him on his performance: “What matters is what the players say. The French thanked me after the match, they were satisfied with the refereeing. I spoke with Hugo Lloris et Olivier Giroud, everyone shook hands And Kylian Mbappe unexpectedly hugged me. He was very sad and disappointed at the loss. I think it was such a human gesture. I also hugged him and tried to comfort him, said he was an exceptional player who won the World Cup four years ago. And the next one, we hope so.
