Fabio Baldas

In 1981, Fabio Baldas was refereeing in the third level of Italian football, and just five years later, took charge of the first of 114 Serie A matches. In his short career (1986-94), he was fortunate enough to take charge of some great Italian matches like the derbies of Milano, Roma, Genoa and Torino, and he also twice refereed Juventus – A.C. Milan matches. Baldas officiated in just one Italian Cup final, when Parma beat Juventus 2-0 in 1992.

An international referee from 1991, Baldas officiated at that year’s FIFA Under-17 World Championship, and was in charge of four matches, including the semi-final between Ghana and Qatar. The following year in Spain, he was in charge of two Olympic matches. At the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Baldas refereed the United States – Colombia match at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, which saw the home team win 2-1 in front of nearly 94,000 fans.

After the retirement, Baldas was, along with another well-known referee Paolo Casarin, in charge of designating referees for matches in Serie A and Serie B. He did the job on his own in the 1997-98 season but, probably due to inexperience, lost the position to Sergio Gonella the following year.