Marciniak was born in 1981 in
Płock,
Poland. The first sport he practiced in his youth was
cycling. He changed this sport for football at the age of 15.[6] He played in the junior squad of
Wisła Płock claiming the fourth place at the Polish Junior Championships with the team.[7] He also briefly played for the German
Regionalliga club VfB Annaberg-Buchholz.[8] 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.[9]
He refereed his first match in the top Polish professional league in 2009 at the
GKS Bełchatów stadium (match between GKS Bełchatów and
Odra Wodzisław Śląski). Since then, he has refereed more than 300 matches in
Ekstraklasa having been appointed the head referee in the 2016
Polish Cup final match as well as the 2017
Polish Super Cup.[10][11]
As of 2021, he has given 1201 yellow cards (on average four yellow cards per game), 79 red cards and has awarded 131 penalty kicks in over 300 Ekstraklasa matches he has refereed.[12]
On 20 March 2015, he was appointed to the UEFA Elite referee list, finding himself among the top 27 football referees in Europe.[18] On 30 June 2015, he was the referee for the
2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final.[19]
He participated in the
UEFA Euro 2016 and refereed three matches: Spain-Czech Republic and Iceland-Austria in the group stage of the tournament as well as Germany-Slovakia in the knockout phase.
On 29 March 2018, FIFA announced that he would officiate some matches at
2018 FIFA World Cup along with Paweł Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz as assistant referees.[21] He officiated two group stage matches: Argentina-Iceland and Germany-Sweden.[22] He was also selected as the referee for the 2018
UEFA Super Cup final match between
Real Madrid and
Atlético Madrid.[23]
On 15 December 2021, he was appointed to referee of the semi-final match between Qatar and Algeria (1–2) at the
2021 FIFA Arab Cup hosted by
Qatar.[24]
On 19 May 2022, he was selected to officiate matches at the
2022 FIFA World Cup. He officiated one match in the group stage (France's 2–1 win over Denmark) and one match in the Round of 16 (Argentina's 2–1 victory over Australia).[25] On 15 December 2022, it was announced that he would officiate the
World Cup final between
Argentina and
France, becoming the first Polish referee to do so.[26][27][28] His performance in the final was highly praised by many commentators as well as fellow referees including
Pierluigi Collina,
Howard Webb,
Keith Hackett,
Lutz Wagner[29][30] and
Thorsten Kinhöfer.[31]
On 1 June 2023, it was reported that three days earlier Marciniak spoke at an entrepreneur conference co-organised by
Sławomir Mentzen, a right-wing
libertarian politician and leader of the
Confederation Liberty and Independence in Poland, who has in the past been accused of anti-semitic and anti-LGBT statements.[37] His attendance at the event was first disclosed by the Polish anti-racist organisation
Never Again.[38] Marciniak responded to Never Again's report by releasing a statement in which he dissociated himself from the views presented by the organizer stressing that he "always puts fair play and respect for other people first".[39][40] Ultimately, UEFA announced Marciniak would remain as referee for the UEFA Champions League final scheduled for 10 June.[41]
Personal life
He has two children with wife Magdalena: a son, Bartosz (born 2003) and a daughter, Natalia (born 2012).[42] He practices
Muay Thai and plays
badminton as an amateur.[43][44]
In 2021, he was diagnosed with
tachycardia after having recovered from
COVID-19 infection, which prevented him from officiating matches at the
UEFA Euro 2020.[45]
He is the protagonist of the
Canal+ documentary series entitled Sędziowie (Referees)[46] and Na podsłuchu presenting the work of football referees.[47] In 2022, he appeared as a guest at the Kuba Wojewódzki talk show.[48] He also received the Personality of the Year Award in the
Piłka nożna magazine plebiscite.[49] In 2023, he appeared in the fourth episode of the 8th edition of
Polsat's TV show Hell's Kitchen. Piekielna Kuchnia.[50] The same year, he was awarded the Laude Probus Medal by the council authorities of his hometown of
Płock.[51]