Massimo De Santis (born April 8, 1962) is an Italian football referee, who was banned until 2011 for match-fixing in the 2006 Serie A scandal. Before the allegations, De Santis was well respected and officiated many high profile Italian Serie A and international games. He also controversially disallowed an equalising goal by Parma against Juventus in the penultimate round of the 1999-2000 season, which caused accusations of match-fixing already then, although there was no proof.
De Santis was born in Tivoli, Lazio. In addition to being a referee, he is a police constable in Rome. De Santis speaks Italian and English. His first international game was January 1, 2000. He was an official at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.[1]
De Santis was selected as Italy's refereeing representative at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but was barred by the Italian Football Federation due to the Serie A match fixing scandal in 2006.[2] In July 2006, he was banned for 4½ years for his involvement in the scandal.[3]
De Santis strongly denied guilt, saying "If I committed any offences I did so on the field of play, if mistakes were made - but then we would have to try all the referees in the history of the game. I'm not taking this charge lying down. I expect justice."[4]