Polish referee Szymon Marciniak to officiate World Cup final

The 41-year-old, who will be assisted by Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz, will become the first Polish official in history to referee a World Cup final, while Tomasz Kwiatkowski, also from Poland, and Venezuelan Juan Soto have been selected as part of the VAR officiating team.

Marciniak has been selected to take charge of the 22nd final of the biggest international tournament by FIFA's referees committee led by chairman Pierluigi Collina.

Anthony Taylor, Cesar Ramos, Ismael Elfath and Wilton Sampaio were among those in the running to referee Sunday's showpiece event, but they have all missed out on this occasion, while the likes of Michael Oliver and Antonio Mateu Lahoz were not under consideration after being sent home.

According to Sport Center, Collina deemed Marciniak the best equipped to take charge of this year's final following his strong performances in Qatar.

Marciniak was the official in France's 2-1 victory over Denmark in the group stage and also took charge of Argentina's 2-1 win against Australia in the last 16.

Born in Plock, Marciniak began his career as a referee at the age of 21 and has since been recognised as a FIFA official since 2011.

Marciniak officiated the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final and participated at both Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup at senior level.

The Pole was unavailable for Euro 2020, however, after he was diagnosed with an abnormally fast heart-beating condition called tachycardia.

Marciniak has since regularly officiated Champions League and Europa League matches and will now take charge of the biggest game of his career when he steps out to officiate Sunday's World Cup final.

Some referees have received plenty of criticism from players, coaches, pundits and supporters during this year's tournament in Qatar.

Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio was slammed by several England players after their quarter-final defeat against France, while Lionel Messi and Emiliano Martinez were among those who heavily criticised Spanish official Antonio Mateu Lahoz following their quarter-final triumph over the Netherlands on penalties.

Meanwhile, Morocco have lodged an official complaint to FIFA following the performance of Mexican referee Cesar Ramos during their 2-0 semi-final defeat against France.

The Moroccan FA are unhappy that a first-half penalty was not awarded in their favour when Theo Hernandez made contact with Sofiane Boufal in the box, with the latter instead booked for a foul on the France left-back.