General Assignments Discussion

Does he have an advanced degree?

 

ArbitroInternacional is reporting that Tomasz Kwiatokowski (POL) is the main VAR for Barton.

Is Marciniak really done?

 

It’s not a surprise that so many refs have advanced degrees. The ego and determination you need to become a top international referee goes in step with what is needed to get those degrees. What surprises me more is that with the types of careers that people with these degrees have or would want to have, the ability to do all the types of games and traveling, especially at the lower levels, was conducive to still doing well in those fields. As in you’d think that attorneys, top engineers, etc. wouldn’t be able to be always doing these weeknight games and traveling all over for non-work-related matters especially at lower adult levels as they work their way up

That’s probably just me not understanding how all that works though.

 

I actually ran into her in a hallway at Duke Hospital one time.

 

Go back 15 years and it was always Batres that got meaningful USA/Mexico games. Not everyone can handle that kind of madness.

 

I mean, we can do this all day. The referee world is very competitive these days and people who rise to the top tend to have some combination of intellect, motivation/determination, likeability, resiliency, and time management skills. These are skills that are highly transferable.

It's cool that it's happening. But it's no real surprise. Those who rise to the top of this profession these days tend to be predisposed to rise to the top of another profession (if they set their mind to it).

 

And people with advanced degrees are more likely to be in positions where they can negotiate job conditions to allow them to pursue refereeing at an international level.

If your day job is as a mechanic at a local auto repair place or managing a retail outlet, you might be able to be a weekend ref in the local rec league, but you can't go off to Taiwan for two weeks.

 

For what our mechanic used to charge he could take the whole family and spend a week in Hawaii on the way back.

 

Right - so maybe not the typical police officer but certainly the typical math teacher.

 

The World Cup disaster for Spanish referees is confirmed. After being completely absent from the 2025 Club World Cup, their only representative, Hernández Hernández, leaves the 2026 World Cup with a single group-stage match officiated (Brazil-Haiti). It's an utter humiliation and…

— MisterChip (English) (@MisterChiping) July 13, 2026

Expand the tweet and it's breakdown of how many games each nationality has done at this World Cup.

What a weird coincidence that Argentina and Brazil have officiated the exact same number of games...

 

Been thinking about the Marciniak thing since the VAR news was reported, and I guess it's still possible they're just gonna pair him up with a different VAR despite rating Kwiatokowski as good enough for a semi-final main VAR chair, and the thought occurred: What if Marciniak knew he was coming to just work a couple of group games, and then the rest of the time has been more on-the-job training by Collina for him? The rumor of him taking the main job is making me think.

I mean the simpler answer is just that he didn't perform well enough. I get that. But to a point previously made, they didn't need to keep 13 guys for 8 slots and they jettisoned a host nation referee who had worked a semi-final before. They could have easily just sent him home, too. So, why is he still there? He's not getting the final again. It looks very very unlikely he gets the other SF at this point. Third place seems like it's accounted for already. Sometimes things just end up happening because people didn't put enough thought into it, but this doesn't feel like one of those situations.

edit: also somewhat just bored at work if you can't tell lol

 

I think the simplest answer (if he doesn't work) is that the missed yellow card on Messi makes the optics so bad that he is basically not assignable.

Headline: "Referee who missed yellow (or red card in some eyes) on Messi given World Cup semi-final"

 

@RedStar91 probably has the more likely explanation, but this isn’t the craziest idea I’ve heard.

 

That hasn’t occurred to me but also makes perfect sense, particularly with how that incident blew up after the Balogun red card

 

Maybe they were hoping the Messi non-yellow thing would blow over. But now the online rage has gotten even angrier about “VARgentina”. But I still don’t think it’s enough of a reason to not use him, if they really wanted to I would think they would have put him on France-Spain. There’s probably something outside call-specific reasons

 

Nothing makes sense at this World Cup.

Pinheiro got two knockout games.

Adham Makhadmeh got two knockout games.

Tantashev got a knockout game.

Ramos didn't get one.

So I have no idea why Marciniak didn't get one and why he has been kept around.