How FIFA chose the referee for the 2022 World Cup final?

Competing in the World Cup final is a dream and a great honor for the teams as well as the players. Similarly, being the first referee in the final match of the world's largest football festival is the highest honor for referees. Therefore, the race for the right to run in the 2022 World Cup final is also very fierce.

According to Football London, Marciniak is the brightest candidate. The Polish referee performed excellently in both matches at the 2022 World Cup, when France beat Denmark 2-1 in the group stage and Argentina defeated Australia 2-1 in the round of 16. Marciniak has an advantage in running the final match because he has match management experience from both Argentina and France.

Referee Syzmon Marciniak will be the first referee in the 2022 World Cup final.

Cesar Ramos (Mexico) and Ismael Elfath (USA) were nonetheless two further candidates who were taken into consideration. Because Spanish is his primary language, Ramos is at a disadvantage. He will reportedly find it simpler to interact with the Argentine players as a result. After Elfath's birth country of Morocco fell to France in the semifinals, Elfath's chances improved.

The decision of who would officiate the final is made by renowned former official Pierluigi Collina, who currently serves as the chairman of the FIFA Referee Committee. And late on December 15 (Doha time), he made the announcement that Marciniak had been chosen.

FIFA currently has a number of guidelines in place to ensure there is no bias from the referees. According to FIFA's official rule regarding the assignment, the referee must not be from the federation of the team that is competing.

Syzmon Marciniak used to referee the match between Argentina and Australia.

However, FIFA always works to resolve informal barriers to allow little room for "perceived bias". Specifically, FIFA often avoids assigning referees to administer World Cup matches with teams from their federation or region. Normally, this is not possible for European countries due to the large number of nations.

But FIFA will try to apply this restriction to other continents and regions. Therefore, three referees from South America, Raphael Claus (Brazil), Wilton Sampaio (Brazil), Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela) certainly do not govern the final with the presence of Argentina.

In addition, Daniele Orsato and Cesar Ramos have been selected as the first referees in both semifinal matches and are unlikely to be in charge of the final, although FIFA regulations do not prohibit a referee from starting consecutive semi-finals and finals at a World Cup. Similarly, Jesus Valenzuela and Mohammed Abdulah Hassan have been selected as the fourth referees for the two semi-final matches and are also unlikely to be assigned to the final match.

Daniele Orsato and Cesar Ramos won't be in charge for the final because they had controlled two semi-final matches.

The Belgian referee who officiated Uruguay's 2-1 home victory over Argentina in 1930 was the first to oversee a World Cup final. With four officials, England has the most for a World Cup final, followed by Italy with three. No official has officiated either of the two World Cup finals for men's football as of yet.

Marciniak, who was born in 1981, is regarded as one of Europe's top referees. In 2009, he began officiating in the Polish league, and in 2013, FIFA appointed him as a referee. Marciniak oversaw Liverpool's 2-0 victory against Villarreal in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal at Anfield last year. He also had three matches under his charge at Euro 2016 before to that.

When refereeing the matches France vs. Denmark and Argentina vs. Australia, Marciniak only drew 5 yellow cards, did not draw any red cards, and did not blow any penalties.

Supporting Marciniak in the final at Lusail Stadium on December 18 will be two compatriots: Paweł Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz.

The Qatar referee team, including referee Abdulrahman Al Jassim and two assistants, Taleb Al Marri and Saoud Ahmed Almaqaleh, will control the third-place match between Croatia and Morocco on December 17.