A cold night at Chester FC 's 1885 Arena isn't the most obvious place you would find a former Serie A referee. But the man in the middle for the Blues' clash with Tranmere Rovers in the quarter final of the Cheshire Senior Cup was last year taking charge of some of the biggest games in European football.
Claudio Gavillucci made headlines in 2018 when he suspended a Serie A clash between Sampdoria and Napoli after home fans were heard to be making discriminatory chants towards the visiting Napoli fans. Gavillucci took the drastic action to suspend play in the 31st minute of the clash, where would be Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri was in charge of Napoli, due to chanting from the Sampdoria fans toward the visitors that prompted Sampdoria President Massimo Ferrero to take the field to ask his fans to stop. The game continued and Napoli won 2-0 but Gavillucci came in for criticism for the decision and was eventually dismissed from Serie A, the reason given for him being bottom of the performance table but his lawyers, challenging the decision, stating their belief that is was the dim view taken by league officials on his stance in the Sampdoria - Napoli game. Since then he has been in the refereeing wilderness, taking charge of his final game at the end of 2018, a clash between Udinese and Bologna. He has been refereeing games at county level in England in recent weeks and Chester's clash with Tranmere in front of a crowd of 464 formed part of his comeback trail. Chester won the game 1-0 thanks to a Danny Elliott penalty, Gavillucci pointing the spot after Stuart Crilly was felled on 21 minutes.
