The Swiss referee has been selected for the UEFA Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona on Wednesday together with his assistant Matthias Arnet and Francesco Buragina. Fourth official will be Claudio Circhetta.
Busacca is one of the most experienced referees currently refereeing and has many big games under his belt. His last achievement was the UEFA Cup final in 2007 between Espanyol and Sevilla on Hampden Park in Glasgow. The match was decided to Sevilla’s advantage on penalties. Busacca handed out five yellow cards with one being Espanyol’s Hurtado second and therefore leading to a red.
The previous season the 40 year old Swiss referee had been selected to be one of the nine referees from the European zone in the FIFA World Cup in Germany. He got two matches in the group stage and the match between Argentina and Mexico in the round of 16. He is on the list of preselected referees eligible for the 2010 World Cup.
He’s refereed a total of nine matches in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2003 and 2005. He made his international debut with an Intertoto match in 1999 and quickly moved up the system. In 2001 he refereed his first World Cup qualifier with Northern Ireland – Bulgaria.
In 2002 he served as fourth official to Urs Meier in the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen. He made his Champions League debut leading his own quartet the following season with the match Lokomotiv Moskva – Galatasaray which ended in a late Galatasaray victory. He continued to ramp up matches in the tournament and in 2008 he refereed the semi-final between Barcelona and Manchester United on Nou Camp.
Last year he took part in EURO 2008 in Switzerland and Austria where he got three matches, two in the group stage and the semi-final between Germany and Turkey.
After the Champions League final Busacca and his assistants will head for South Africa and the 2009 Confederations Cup. They will be in company with several other experienced referees like Howard Webb, Jorge Larrionda and Carlos Amarilla.
UEFA have undoubtedly been under massive scrutiny with regard to the selection for the final after the brawl in the end of the Stamford Bridge semi-final, but they can be sure that Massimo Busacca and his team will be ready and perform to the max. Busacca is a referee who likes to keep the game flowing and keep interruptions to the minimum so Wednesday’s match should be a spectacle for everyone who loves football.
Random facts about Massimo Busacca and his team:
- Matthias Arnet’s debut came in the WC qualifier in 2000 between Norway and Ukraine in Oslo for Urs Meier.
- Arnet is a bank employee.
- Francesco Buragina is a car mechanic.
- Buragina’s debut came with the friendly Germany and Scotland in 1999.
- Massimo Busacca has a personal record of 2:02 on the 800m.
- The team participated in U-20 WC 2003 amongst names such as WC 2006 final referee Horacio Elizondo, Italian Roberto Rosetti and Belgian Frank De Bleeckere. Busacca also worked as fourth official for Roberto Rosetti in the final.
- In U-20 WC 2005 the trio participated amongst names such as UEFA Cup 2009 final referee Luis Medina Cantalejo, Dane Claus Bo Larsen, UEFA Champions League 2001 final referee Markus Merk, UEFA Champions League 2006 final referee Terje Hauge and WC 2006 referee Valentin Ivanov. They got to referee one of the semi-finals while Norwegian Terje Hauge was appointed to the final.
Sources:
UEFA.com
FIFA.com
Wikipedia
WorldReferee
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