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.
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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
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
Topics: Football, Premier League
Chris Byfield