The decision on the refereeing of the Champions League final was changed by the UEFA Referees Committee on Thursday evening, just after the Europa League semi-final matches. The appointment of Szymon Marciniak was officially approved on Friday. On the same day and on Saturday, UEFA was in charge of communication with interested parties and was preparing the official announcement scheduled for Monday for all refereeing teams appointed to conduct three finals in men's cup competitions and one final in women's football.
Less than a week ago, on Tuesday and Wednesday, UEFA's plan was that the final of the Champions League - depending on how the return semi-final matches of this competition and the Europa League would turn out - would be led by one of the referees: Englishman Anthony Taylor, Dutchman Danny Makkelie or Slovenian Slavko Vincic. “Szymon Marciniak is not the first candidate to lead this year's Champions League final. Fate played a trick on the UEFA refereeing authorities, who had to change their plans and even some decisions already made. A combination of circumstances resulted in the elimination of all three main candidates. Manchester City, eliminating Real Madrid, also excluded referee Taylor, just as Liverpool eliminated him a year earlier. Makkelie eliminated himself with VAR Pol van Boekel in a compromisingly poor partnership in Thursday's 2-1 Europa League semi-final second leg between Sevilla and Juventus Turin. In turn, Vincic, who performed very poorly in the earlier match between Manchester City and RB Leipzig, was very average in the second UEL semi-final Bayer Leverkusen - AS Roma and did not convince that the crisis of form is already behind him.
Szymon Marciniak, yes, was among the candidates, but earlier. He was seen in the final by, among others, the chairman of the UEFA Referees Committee, Roberto Rosetti. Despite such a strong supporter - due to the performance of the Pole in the final of the World Cup in Qatar and Marciniak's age, the history of refereeing for the FIFA and UEFA finals and their effects, as well as considering issues related to personnel management in the long term - UEFA dominated for several weeks the view that the most important match in European cup competitions should be entrusted to the Pole in a year or even two or three years, so that he has a big and important goal as long as possible - motivation to continue his refereeing career in FIFA and UEFA competitions, and not in the Chinese, Saudi or possibly MLS league, which would all conflict with the interests of UEFA, and perhaps also the interests of FIFA. A person very close to the UEFA refereeing authorities confirmed a while ago, that “currently, there is no need to appoint Szymon Marciniak to officiate this season's Champions League final or to plan it for next year. Of course, the Pole is an excellent referee, he deserved the World Cup final, and no one seriously questions it, but he has already been appreciated, he is satisfied and there is no need to spoil him with another final. There are other referees in Europe who also deserve a prestigious final, have been waiting for it for years, so UEFA must make reasonable personnel decisions”. In the context of this year's final, Marciniak was placed on the reserve list. Therefore, when there were incidents after the first semi-final between Real Madrid and Manchester City, UEFA just appointed him for the second leg in Manchester. At that moment, even for the best-informed, including people close to the UEFA authorities, it was clear that Marciniak would not referee this year's final, at least not the Champions League final. The last time a semi-final referee officiated a final was in UEFA in 2016. English referee Mark Clattenburg then officiated the Champions League semi-final between Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich, and the final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, and a few weeks later he officiated the final of Euro 2016, Portugal - France. “A nomination for Szymon Marciniak would therefore be something UEFA prefers to avoid – the appointment of a referee for the final just after officiating the semi-final of the same competition – but it would still not be as unusual as the case of Clattenburg. Before he refereed Atletico's matches in the semi-finals and finals, he also officiated the club's match in the Round of 16, when Atletico won against PSV Eindhoven.
Thanks to this nomination, Szymon Marciniak not only finds himself in a situation similar to Mark Clattenburg, but above all, he becomes one of the greatest referees in the history of football. Similar achievements, authority and recognition had only the Italian Pierluigi Collina, who officiated the final of the Champions League in 1999 and the final of the World Cup in 2002, and the Englishman Howard Webb, who officiated both such finals in 2010. After the Champions League final, the most important goals for Szymon Marciniak's team are the Euro 2024 in Germany, the Olympic Games in Paris, also in 2024, and the Club World Cup, but rather not until 2025, in the already enlarged version, with the participation of 32 clubs from around the world.
Source: TVP Sport
