Stefano Farina (19 September 1962 – 23 May 2017) was an Italian association football referee.

Career

Farina was born in Ovada on 19 September 1962. In a 27-year career, he refereed several high-profile matches in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, including the 2006 UEFA Super Cup final in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

between

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

. During this time, he also had an appearance in the movie '' Goal II'' as the referee of the fictional Champions League final between

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. He officiated

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

's preliminary

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification, the

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America ...

, and also in qualifiers for the European Championship, such as the UEFA Euro 2004 qualification, as well as the UEFA Euro 2008 qualification. He is known to have served as a FIFA referee during the period from 2001 to 2007.FIFA
"Match Report - Portugal - Cyprus 6:0 (1:0)"
6 June 2001. Retrieved on 17 May 2013. Farina retired internationally in 2007 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 45. He was inducted into the

Italian Football Hall of Fame The Italian Football Hall of Fame () is the hall of fame for association football players that have had a significant impact on Italian football. It is housed at the '' Museo del Calcio'' in Coverciano, Italy. History and regulations The Hall o ...

in 2017.

Death

Farina died in Genova on 23 May 2017, aged 54.Calcio mourns referee Farina
23 May 2017. Retrieved on 23 May 2017.

References

External links

1962 births 2017 deaths Italian football referees People from Ovada Sportspeople from the Province of Alessandria {{Italy-footybio-stub