It is not usual to see a referee defending his work on media outlets, but the man in charge of seeing all rules on the pitch being followed during the FIFA World Cup final did not hold back when speaking about his work on December 18.
Referee Szymon Marciniak held a press conference to discuss some of the controversial decisions he made during the match between Les Bleus and La Albiceleste, and the Polish ref did not hold back whe asked his opinion on certain matters. In fact, he revealed that if he had decided to disallow Messi's third goal of the evening, then he should have done the same with Kylian Mbappé's equalizer.
"The French media did not show this picture, where you can see up to seven Frenchmen on the pitch when Mbappé is about to score. In first place, to disallow that goal based on that evidence, those players needed to have an effect on the game. What was the impact on the game with those guys jumping on the pitch?", the ref questioned while showing a picture of the incident on his cell phone.
The ref also indicated that there was one more play that caused controversy in France regarding a penalty during the final moments of regulation. The referee stated that VAR technology adviced him to check the foul, but after looking at all angles, those in charge of watching the monitors supported his decision.
"VAR officers, led by Tomasz Kwiatkowski, told me that the team looked at the incident involving Thuram and decided to overturn my decision on the pitch, but after looking at several replays, they came to the decision to keep the game going," Marciniak added.
Then, the ref admitted that in the end, the thoughts of the players after the game are the only ones that matter to him, as they all praised their job during the highly contested clash.
"What the players told us is what really matters. The French team thanked us after the game, they were satisfied with our work. Everyone got close and shook hands, they even exchanged a few words with us. I spoke to Lloris and Giroud, and then Kylian Mbappé came to give me an unexpected hug. He was really disappointed for their loss, and I think it was such a human gesture. I hugged him back and tried to comfort him, I told him how great a player he was and that he had won four years ago," the ref concluded.
