Davide Massa (born 15 July 1981) is an Italian football referee who officiates in Serie A. He has been a FIFA referee since 2014, and is ranked as a UEFA elite category referee.[1]
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 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 and Juventus's Juan Cuadrado 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.[5][6]
Weeks later, on 23 April 2023, Massa refereed the Greek Super League derby Olympiacos CFP- AEK Athens 1-3 which caused huge complaints from the Olympiacos CFP team with his refereeing, causing the invasion at the end of the match by Olympiacos CFP team officials, the president of Evangelos Marinakis 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.[7][8]
