Massimo De Santis (born 8 April 1962) is an Italian former association football referee.
[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 Calciopoli scandal in 2006.
[2] 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.
"[5] After the March 2015 acquittals of everyone involved in the scandal, De Santis was the only one whose one-year suspended sentence was confirmed, having opted to waive the statute of limitations.
He described the Calciopoli trial as "skewed from the start", adding: "I wasn't expecting the prosecution case to hold up.