The top referees of all time have been ranked and England's 'best' official is a controversial choice

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) have ranked the greatest referees in history.

The IFFHS have collated the results of their annual refereeing ranking from 1987 to 2022 to determine the greatest of all time.

A referee’s placing in each yearly category determines the amount of points they are allocated. Should a referee finish top of their annual list they would receive 20 points. The second placed official would receive 19 points, the third placed would be awarded 18 points and so on.

As anticipated, Pierluigi Collina, winner of the annual IFFHS World’s Best Referee Award on six successive occasions between 1998 and 2003, leads the all time ranking with 191 points, 7 more than second placed Markus Merk.

Merk’s German compatriot Felix Brych sits in third with 161 points while Kim Milton Nielson takes fourth position.

England’s Howard Webb completes the top five with 156 points. Webb is one of three English referees on the list, with Graham Poll joint 23rd on 82 points, two ahead of Martin Atkinson in 27th.

The IFFHS full list is below:

Pierluigi COLLINA Italy 191

Markus MERK Germany 184

Felix BRYCH Germany 161

Kim Milton NIELSEN Denmark 159

Howard WEBB England 156

Björn KUIPERS Netherlands 152

Peter MIKKELSEN Denmark 142

Cuneyt CAKIR Turkey 140

Oscar RUIZ Colombia 132

Nicola RIZZOLI Italy 121

Sandor PUHL Hungary 119

Jorge LARRIONDA Uruguay 108

Urs MEIER Switzerland 102

Anders FRISK Sweden 100

Frank DE BLEECKERE Belgium 98

Howard Webb is ranked fifth on the list of all time referees (Getty)

Pierluigi PAIRETTO Italy 97

Massimo BUSACCA Switzerland 96

Helmut KRUG Germany 96

Lubos MICHEL Slovakia 96

Juan Carlos LOUSTAU Argentina 93

Roberto ROSETTI Italy 91

Nestor PITANA Argentina 88

Graham POLL England 82

Joel QUINIOU France 82

Viktor KASSAI Hungary 81

Ravshan IRMATOV Uzbekistan 81

Martin ATKINSON England 80

Hugh DALLAS Scotland 78

Damir SKOMINA Slovenia 76

Mario VAN DER ENDE Netherlands 76

Michel VAUTROT France 76