The referee of the World Cup final against France: “You gave me 2 on the report card for Messi’s goal, but look at this photo” – Football

A shot to effect, like those of Leo Messi and of Kylian Mbappe. He, Szymon Marciniak, refereed them in the World Cup final in Qatar. And, despite the two penalties awarded to France, he was given a 2 in his report card The Team. Among his “faults” the penalty granted to Argentina, described as “generous”; the lack of a yellow card for the former Atalanta defender Christian Romero, author of “brutal fouls”. But, above all, the concession of the momentary 3-2 goal for the South Americans, scored by Leo Messi. An irregular network, for the French sports newspaper, which cites Rule 3, paragraph 9 of the Rules of the Game of Football, which reads: “If, after a goal has been scored, the referee realizes, before play restarts, that there was an extra person on the field of play at the time the goal was scored, he will not award a goal if the additional person was a player (entered or returned without authorisation), substitute, substituted or sent off or official of the team that scored the goal; play is restarted with a direct free kick from where the extra person was“.

The players of the Argentine bench on the pitch at the time of Messi’s goal

The photos captured by the many smartphones pointed at the Doha field clearly showed all the dynamics of the net: the shot of Lautaro Martinez, Lloris’s rebound and Messi’s rebuttal, showing that at that moment more than one player on the Argentine bench was already on the pitch, ready to celebrate the number ten’s goal. Marciniak – who returned to Poland and was welcomed as a winner – calmly replied: “How would this situation have affected the game? And what was the impact of the players who got up and jumped onto the pitch? We are looking for a foothold here at any cost and this is not a serious attitude”.

Marciniak shows the cell phone with the photo of the French on the field

Then the coup de theatre. The referee brandished his mobile phone showing a snapshot: “The French didn’t mention the photo where you can see that there were seven players on the pitch when Mbappé scored. Should I have canceled that goal too? The truth is that there are the newspapers serious and others who instead seek scandal at any cost. Friends of the referees wrote to me, from France, and complimented me on my direction of the match”. More: the videos taken by the spectators in the stands clearly show how much of the bench occupied by coach Deschamps was on the pitch in the final moments of the second extra time, at the time of the shot Kolo Muanimiraculously saved by Emiliano Martinezwhich could have given France the World Cup.

In short, the invasions on the field were reciprocal and, according to Marciniak, did not affect the result. The Polish referee wanted to remember something else about the most important match of his career: “At the end of the match Mbappé hugged me. It was a beautiful and unexpected gesture. To console him, I said to him: ‘You are an exceptional player, you have already won a World Cup, four years ago, and you’re so young that you can conquer others’. He was sad and disappointed. But he behaved like a true sportsman”