Domenico Falzier

Domenico Falzier was born in Treviso on 27 August 1942 and was known to friends and colleagues as Nico. He grew up in a refereeing family. His father, Rino Falzier, refereed up to Serie B in what the local press called heroic times for the profession, and afterwards became the official who assigned referees to matches in the Treviso area.

After his studies he joined the Treviso bank Cassamarca, where he worked in several branches before becoming a long serving manager at its office in Piazza Aldo Moro.

Falzier took the refereeing course of the Treviso section in 1962, in the same intake as Gianni Cervellin and Leonida Coghetto. He began on local pitches in the Marca Trevigiana and then in the Veneto regional leagues, and his ability brought him rapid promotion through Serie C.

In 1977 he was added to the CAN, the national refereeing panel for Serie A and Serie B. He refereed his first Serie B match, Brescia against Rimini, on 7 May 1978, a 2 to 0 home win. He made his Serie A debut on 2 May 1982 with Avellino against Como, which finished 1 to 1. In 1982 he received the Fischietto d'argento, the silver whistle prize given by Polisportiva Pulcini Cascina to the best debutant referee in Serie A.

Accounts of his record differ. Italian Wikipedia lists 59 matches in Serie B and two in Serie A between 1977 and 1983, while the AIA Treviso section and local newspapers credit him with more than 90 Serie B matches and three in Serie A. He stopped refereeing around the 1984 season.

He stayed involved with the association after retiring from the field. He was president of the AIA Treviso section from 1997 to 2004 and later worked as an observer, sharing his experience with new generations of referees. Calogero Castellino, who joined the section in 2001 when Falzier was president, described him as strict but a great leader, close to young referees in their technical training and in respect for the rules of the game and of the association.

Nico Falzier died on Saturday 24 October 2026, aged 84, at the care home in Casale sul Sile, in the province of Treviso, where he had been a resident. His death was announced the following day by the AIA Treviso section, and the national committee of the AIA sent its condolences to his family on behalf of all Italian referees. No cause of death was made public.

Tributes appeared in TrevisoToday and Il Gazzettino. Gianni Cervellin, honorary president of the section and his predecessor as president, called him a fantastic person and a friend who had reached Serie A and been a balanced president. Castellino said the section had lost an oak, not only a Serie A referee but a great leader.

Falzier belonged to a generation of Treviso referees who carried the city's section onto the national stage, and he continued a family tradition begun by his father. His silver whistle in 1982 marked him as one of the best new referees in Serie A that season. As president and observer he helped train younger officials, and the AIA Treviso section said that his lessons and values would continue to live on in all who wear the referee's black jersey.