Polish referee Szymon Marciniak, who refereed the 2022 World Cup final between France and Argentina, showed a photo on his mobile phone of French players invading the field to celebrate one of Mbappe’s goals. The image was used to respond to claims by French newspaper L’Équipe that Argentina’s third goal of the match should be disallowed.
According to the newspaper, Lionel Messi’s goal should not have been validated because some players who were on the Argentine bench entered the field to celebrate before the ball actually crossed the line.
To support the opinion, the newspaper cites the ninth paragraph of rule number three of the International Football Association Board, which says that referees must disallow goals if a reserve player is on the pitch at the time the goal is scored.
Except that the image shown by Marciniak, according to him, indicates that French athletes did the same thing during one of Kylian Mbappé’s goals in the match.
“The French did not mention this photo, where you can see there are seven French [que estavam no banco de reservas] on the pitch when Mbappé scores the goal,” he said, showing his cell phone to journalists during a press conference.
In France, even a petition calling for the annulment of the match was created because of the Argentine invasion. About 220,000 Internet users signed the document.
After a 3-3 tie in normal time and extra time, Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties to win their third World Cup.
