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Massimo Busacca (born February 6, 1969 in Bellinzona) is a Swiss football (soccer) referee. He lives in Monte Carasso near Bellinzona and is also a business owner. He has been a referee in the highest Swiss football league since 1996. He has been a FIFA referee since 1999. He was called to be a referee at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

2006 FIFA World Cup
While refereeing a 2006 World Cup match between Ukraine and Spain, Busacca made a decision against Vladislav Vaschuk, giving the player a red card and awarding a penalty kick against Ukraine in the 47th minute of the match. Multiple angles of the infraction showed no physical contact inside the penalty area, preceded by a tug on the pants of Fernando Torres in the penalty area by Vladislav Vaschuk. David Villa of Spain slotted home the resulting penalty against Ukrainian keeper Oleksandr Shovkovsky. The refereeing decision was criticized by numerous fans. Observers point out that subsequently, in a similar situation involving Ukraine's Andriy Voronin and the Spanish defence, the referee decided no foul had occurred.

In a later match in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he was criticised for not showing the red card to Argentinian defender Gabriel Heinze after an errant throw by Argentinian goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri resulted in a breakaway by Mexican striker Francisco Fonseca and a subsequent foul by Heinze. Bussacca decided to only give Heinze a yellow card, despite the Argentinian being the last man to beat. He has also turned a blind eye to off-the-ball violence from Argentina, especially one of the Argentina players looking to be slapping a Mexican in the face.^{[citation needed]}

Busacca was one of the twelve referees who remained in the play-off rounds from the quarter finals onwards.

Other matches
On March 24, 2007 Massimo Busacca was called upon again to referee a match with Spain. In a qualification match to the 2008 UEFA European Championships against Denmark in Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid he sent of Danish defender Niclas Jensen after 20 minutes in the first half. To that point the game had been dominated by the Danes. The red card changed the course of the game, and Spain won 2-1, once again leaving the Spanish supports satisfied with Massimo Busacca. Also Danish coach Morten Olsen was sent off in the match.

• (German) Weltfussball Profile
• This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of June 14, 2006.
• FIFA Profile

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