The Italians are basically entering their second week of play after the international break. As I’ve mentioned before, the addition of added referees on the goal lines means the center referees “rotate” more than you see in England, so World Cup Final referee Nicola Rizzoli (above) will only feature as an add at Lazio this week. There is an interesting article
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Ah, Italia! The Serie A season kicks off this weekend, and as always, there’s plenty of refereeing eye candy to go around. One note about Serie A: Unlike English Premier League, Serie A employs “additional referees” – two referees at either goal line – to assist the center referee. These men are usually center referees themselves, which means that Serie
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Hard to believe we’re almost at the end of yet another Serie A season. Here are this upcoming weekend’s referees. Italy’s World Cup team – Nicola Rizzoli, Andrea Stefani and Renato Faverani (all pictured above) – are together in Florence. It looks like Stefani is finally shaking off the injury he’s been carrying for a while, just in time for Brazil.
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Serie A is still trailing Premier League by a week or two, but all of the fun has been sucked out of it by Juventus (ain’t that always the way). Anti-climax aside, there are still a couple of interesting matches this weekend, including Inter v. Lazio, featuring Davide Massa (above) and, of course, the always-lively Roma v. Juventus, handled by
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Daniele Orsato (above) will referee the Coppa Italia (TIM Cup) final between Fiorentina and Napoli, Saturday May 3. His assistants will be Elenito di Liberatore (who assisted Nicola Rizzoli in the Champions League this past week) and Andrea Padovan. Paolo Valeri and Daniele Doveri are added officials, with Davide Massa as fourth official. Even the Pope gets into the Coppa Italia action,
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It must suck to be an Italian referee not named Nicola Rizzoli. He basically owns that league, and whenever there’s a big match, he’s pretty much like: “All your base are belong to us!”. Little dude’s not into sharing.* No other referee is really going to have a legitimate shot at anything cool until Rizzoli retires or gets the measles. In the meantime,
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The Serie A title is very nearly in Juventus’ pocket. But there’s still plenty to play for, particularly between second place Roma and fourth place Fiorentina. (And you have to wonder what Fiorentina could have done this year without the massive injuries – including to Giuseppe Rossi, who lost his lead on league goals weeks after he was injured.) Paolo Mazzoleni
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Let me just say, Nicola Rizzoli is the Honey Badger of Serie A refereeing. And if you’re not American and don’t know what that means, watch the video at the bottom of this post. (And you’re welcome for introducing you to the very best of American culture.) You’re not even playing? Rizzoli don’t care. Rizzoli doesn’t give a shit. Rizzoli takes
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Way back on February 2, Serie A referee Andrea DeMarco made the decision to postpone the Roma v. Parma match due to torrential rains and a boggy pitch. The match was replayed on Tuesday, April 2, with the same referee. In fact, everything was the same: The kickoff time was the same Two players who were suspended then, but not
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I don’t have much of value to add to this week’s Serie A referees. Only that Catania v. Torino wins the Eye Candy of the Week award, with both Nicola Rizzoli and Marco Guida serving as adds – to Gianluca Rocchi*, no less! Saturday CHIEVO – VERONA TAGLIAVENTO DI FIORE – NICOLETTI IV: MUSOLINO ADD1: DOVERI ADD2: CIAMPI INTER – BOLOGNA MAZZOLENI
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