Davide Massa (born 15 July 1981) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee who officiates in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

. He has been a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

referee since 2014, and is ranked as a

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

elite category referee.

Refereeing career

In 2011 he began officiating in

. His first match as referee was on 23 January 2011 between

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

and

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

. In 2014, he was put on the FIFA referees list. He officiated his first senior international match on 8 June 2015 between

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. In 2017, he was selected to officiate the

2017 Supercoppa Italiana The 2017 Supercoppa Italiana was the 30th edition of the Supercoppa Italiana, the Italian football super cup. It was played on 13 August 2017 in Rome, Italy. With Juventus winning both the 2016–17 Serie A championship and the 2016–17 Coppa I ...

between

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

and

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. Massa was selected as a referee for the 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Georgia and the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 ...

in Poland. He has also officiated matches in the 2016–17 Qatar Stars League, 2017–18 Egyptian Premier League and 2022-23

Greek Super League The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

. On 4 April 2023, Massa was criticised for his decisions at Coppa Italia first leg match against Inter Milan and Juventus. First, he sent off Inter's

Romelu Lukaku Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (; born 13 May 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Inter Milan, on loan from club Chelsea, and the Belgium national team. Lukaku began his senior club career playing for Ander ...

after celebrating his late equalizer. Lukaku was subject of racist chants during the match. He celebrated his goal with a "silencing the crowd" gesture where Massa evidently saw it as inciting the crowd. After the match ends, he sent off Inter goalkeeper's

Samir Handanović Samir Handanović (born 14 July 1984) is a Slovenian professional footballer who serves as captain and plays as a goalkeeper for club Inter Milan. Before moving to Italy, Handanović played in his home country of Slovenia. In 2004, he was acqui ...

and Juventus's

Juan Cuadrado Juan Guillermo Cuadrado Bello (born 26 May 1988) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the Colombia national team. He is known for his direct style of play, including his pace (both on and off the ball) as wel ...

after they degenerate into a brawl. Afterwards, former Serie A referee Luca Marelli criticized Messa's decisions to send off Lukaku while Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport suggest that the referee failed to keep a lid on things. Weeks later, on 23 April 2023, Massa refereed the

derby

Olympiacos CFP Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

1-3 which caused huge complaints from the

team with his refereeing, causing the invasion at the end of the match by

team officials, the president of

Evangelos Marinakis Evangelos Marinakis ( el, Ευάγγελος (Βαγγέλης) Μαρινάκης, born 30 July 1967) is a Greek media mogul, shipowner, lyricist and member of the Piraeus city council. He is the owner of the football clubs Olympiacos in Greece ...

and the fans of Olympiacos who clashed with the Police. After the end of the match, Massa wrote on the match sheet that when he left the field, he felt a hit on his genitals by people he did not recognize.

References

External links

Profile
at WorldFootball.net
Profile
at EU-Football.info {{DEFAULTSORT:Massa, Davide 1981 births Living people People from Imperia Italian football referees Sportspeople from the Province of Imperia