Szymon Marciniak was named as the referee for the FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and France on Sunday at the Lusail Stadium. The Polish referee is among the highly-rated match officials in the game and has had an impressive tournament so far, including the France-Denmark group stage game and Argentina-Australia round of 16 game.

The 41-year-old was the head referee in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. The recent knockouts games in the quarterfinals and semifinals have been marred by controversial refereeing decisions with several officials coming under fire for their performances.

Spaniard Antonio Mateu Lahoz handed out a World Cup record 18 bookings – 16 players and two coaches – in the infamous quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands. He was born in 1981 in Płock, Poland. He began his career as a football referee at the age of 21. Initially, he combined refereeing football matches with playing as an amateur footballer.

In 2006, he switched to working as a football referee professionally. He refereed his first match in the top Polish professional league in 2009 at the GKS Bełchatów stadium. Since then, he has refereed more than 200 matches in Ekstraklasa having been appointed the head referee in the 2016 Polish Cup final match as well as the 2017 Polish SuperCup final.