UEFA has announced the appointment of Italian referee Davide Massa to officiate the match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League. This will be his first time refereeing a Barcelona game in European competitions, as well as his first appearance at Spotify Camp Nou since the team resumed playing there in continental tournaments.

Massa is 44 years old and has held the international referee badge since 2014. He is considered one of the most prominent Italian referees currently active in the European scene, and his compatriot Marco Di Bello will be in charge of the video assistant referee (VAR) during the match.

This will be Maas's third encounter in the current edition of the Champions League, having previously officiated two matches involving Spanish teams. The first saw Arsenal defeat Atlético Madrid 4-0, and the second ended with the same scoreline when Borussia Dortmund beat Villarreal on November 25th.

This highly anticipated match is also Masa's first European game with Barcelona, while he has previously officiated matches for Real Madrid, as well as overseeing games for the Italian senior national team and the under-21 team.

On the other hand, this will be the third match officiated by the Italian referee for Eintracht Frankfurt, who has not recorded any wins under his supervision so far. The most recent encounter was the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals last season, when the German team lost 1-0 to Tottenham. The other match dates back to the 2019/2020 season, when Eintracht lost 3-0 at home to Arsenal in the group stage.