An anti-racism group known as on soccer’s prime referee Thursday to distance himself from a far-right politician in Poland, and UEFA stated it wished “urgent clarification” forward of the Champions League last.
“A further announcement will be made (Friday), after reviewing all the evidence,” UEFA stated.
Szymon Marciniak has been picked by UEFA to referee the largest sport in membership soccer between Manchester City and Inter Milan on June 10. He additionally dealt with the Argentina-France World Cup last for FIFA this season.
The Never Again group in Warsaw stated Marciniak “reportedly promoted and participated in a recent event organized by a Polish far-right leader Slawomir Mentzen.”
’We are shocked and appalled by Marciniak’s public affiliation with Mentzen and his model of poisonous far-right politics,” Never Again co-founder Rafal Pankowski stated in a press release. “It is incompatible with the basic values of fair play such as equality and respect.”
Mentzen is a pacesetter of the populist Konfederacja (Confederation) celebration which has been accused of selling antisemitic, sexist and homophobic views.
Marciniak was billed as a key speaker at an occasion publicized as a business convention for entrepreneurs on Monday in Katowice, Poland. Mentzen promoted the referee’s involvement on his social media channels.
UEFA stated in a press release “the whole football community abhor the ‘values’ that are promoted by the group in question and takes these allegations very seriously.”
Pankowski stated Never Again known as upon Marciniak “to acknowledge his mistake. If he does not do it, we believe UEFA and FIFA should draw consequences.”
The 42-year-old Marciniak refereed on the 2022 and 2018 World Cups and the 2016 European Championship. He missed Euro 2020 whereas recovering from a coronary heart criticism after a COVID-19 an infection.
