France v Argentina referee, World Cup 2022 referee stats, who is World Cup Final referee

Referee Szymon Marciniak will oversee Sunday's FIFA World Cup final in Qatar (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)

A former Polish amateur footballer that shattered Chelsea’s Champions League dreams last season has been appointed as the referee for this year’s World Cup final in Qatar.

Szymon Marciniak will take charge of the game between France and Argentina as two of the world’s best players, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, lock horns in order to bring home football’s most prestigious trophy.

And with both nations just 90 minutes away from making history, the 41-year-old referee has been tasked with the role of officiating the game.

Here is everything you need to know about Marciniak, his full World Cup statistics and who will accompany him as assistant referees and VAR officials in this weekend’s showcase clash.

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Who is the referee for the World Cup final 2022

The referee for Sunday’s World Cup Final in Qatar is Polish referee Szymon Marciniak (more on him below). Alongside him will be fellow Polish officials Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz as assistant referees, while the video assistant referee is Tomasz Kwiatkowski.

When is the World Cup final 2022

The FIFA World Cup final between France and Argentina will take place on Sunday 18 December at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar, with kick off scheduled for 3pm UK time.

Who is Szymon Marciniak

Born in 1981 in the Polish city of Plock, Marciniak started his refereeing career at the young age of 21, while also playing amateur football in Poland.

Though he officially became a professional referee in the year 2006, he continued to combine his career with amateur football. His first ever top tier Polish game came in 2009 and he has since officiated over 200 games in the Polish top tier, including the 2016 Polish Cup final and the 2017 Polish Super Cup final.

He has been listed as a FIFA referee since 2011 and made his FIFA refereeing debut in the Europa League qualifying match between Aalesunds FK and Ferencvárosi TC.

His career highlights include refereeing the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final, the 2018 UEFA Super Cup and two group stages games at the World Cup 2018 in Russia, where he took charge of Argentina vs Iceland and Germany vs Sweden.

Szymon Marciniak stats World Cup 2022

The Polish referee has been in charge of two games at the Qatar World Cup so far – both involving finalists France and Argentina.

He officiated the group game between France and Denmark, while he was also in charge for Argentina’s last 16 knockout win over Australia.

So far at the World Cup, he has issued five yellow cards, but no red cards. At the World Cup in 2018, he issued no cards in the game between Argentina and Iceland, though he did send off Germany’s Jerome Boateng for a second bookable offence in 82nd minute against Sweden.

Premier League fans may remember him best as the referee that controversially disallowed Marcos Alonso’s goal for Chelsea against Real Madrid in Champions League tie with Chelsea in April.

The goal was ruled out after he adjudged Alonso to have handled the ball in the run up to the goal, a decision former Blues boss Thomas Tuchel called into question alongside many former pundits.