The 43-year old Italian referee, who owns a hair salon, made his debut in the Serie A in 2003-04 and belongs in his country’s elite. He earned his FIFA badge in 2007 and made his UEFA Champions League debut in December 2010 in a match between Arsenal FC and FK Partizan. He joined UEFA’s Elite Category in 2012, after having officiated the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final between Spain and Switzerland in 2011 in Denmark.

He is associated with pleasant memories of PAOK fans, as he handled the encounter between PAOK and Fenerbahçe SK in Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium in August 2010. Zlatan Muslimović’s historic goal in extra time had sealed the Greek side’s qualification to the UEFA Europa League group stage that season. On the contrary, Inter fans don’t even want his name mentioned, as they accuse him of biased refereeing against their side. His name was also implicated in the huge Calcipolis scandal back in 2006 but eventually all charges against him were dropped and was cleared of any wrongdoing.

In Denmark he will be accompanied by Matteo Passeri and Francesco De Luca, the assistant referees, with Gianpaolo Calvarese acting as fourth official.

Miroslav Liba from the Czech Republic will be the UEFA Referee Observer, and Hungarian István Huszár is the Delegate appointed by the European federation.