Collina – The World's Best Referee of the last Quarter of a Century

Up to 1986, the question of who are the all-time world‘s best referees could only be answered hypothetically. The advent of the IFFHS official vote for the world‘s best referee and with it the resultant annual world ranking of the referees from 1987 created the necessary objective criteria. Consequently, establishing the world‘s best referee over longer period can be made from 1987. Each year many different jurors (countries) have taken part in the vote and, in addition, the jurors in the early years voted for the top three places (3 points to 1 point) and later for the top four places (4 points to 1 point). So it would not be possible to simply add the points awarded in the annual votes. The determination of the World's Best Referee for the last Quarter of a Century (1987-1911) was carried out analogous as those of The World's Best Referee of the First Decade, so there is a uniform system for the future. From the annual world ranking of the referees (as a result of the world vote) the IFFHS will take into consideration the "Top 20" for each year and allocate points to each place. So the first-placed receives 20 points, the second-placed 19 points, the third-placed 18 points... and a point for twentieth place. If the annual world ranking comprises more than 20 referees, then the referees from 21st place onwards receive no points. If the annual world ranking comprises fewer than 20 referees (based on the fixed rules), no points will be awarded for the unoccupied places. Adding the points from the individual years provides a world ranking for the period 1987-2011. The first-placed referee of this final ranking for the period is The World‘s Best Referee of the last Quarter of a Century (1987-2011).
Italian Pierluigi Collina is the World’s Best Referee of the last Quarter of a Century (1987-2011), ahead of German Markus Merk. After the two next best-placed Danes Kim Milton Nielsen and Peter Mikkelsen, Colombian Oscar Ruiz reached position 5 and is therefore South America’s best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011), ahead of Uruguayan Jorge Larrionda and Argentinian Juan Carlos Loustau. In the "Top 10" of the last quarter of a century there are six referees who never became World’s Best Referee of the Year, but provided world-class performances over a long period of time. Mexican Arturo Brizio Carter is North and Central America’s best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011), ahead of his countryman Benito Armando Archundia. Asia's best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011) has become Uzbek Ravshan Irmatov, ahead of Ali Bujsaim from the UAE. Africa's best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011) is Moroccan Said Belqola, ahead of Egyptian Gamal Ghandour. The best referee from Oceania in these 25 years was Australian Mark Shield.

                                                  The World's Best Referee 1987-2011

1. Pierluigi Collina (ITA) 191
2. Markus Merk (GER) 184
3. Kim Milton Nielsen (DEN) 159
4. Peter Mikkelsen (DEN) 142
5. Oscar Ruiz (COL) 132
6. Sandor Puhl (HUN) 119
7. Jorge Larrionda (URU) 108
8. Urs Meier (SUI) 102
9. Anders Frisk (SWE) 100
10. Frank De Bleeckere (BEL) 98
11. Pierluigi Pairetto (ITA) 97
12. Massimo Busacca (SUI) 96
13. Hellmut Krug (GER) 96
14. Lubos Michel (SVK) 96
15. Juan Carlos Loustau (ARG) 93
16. Roberto Rosetti (ITA) 91
17. Graham Poll (ENG) 82
18. Joel Quiniou (FRA) 82
19. Howard Webb (ENG) 80
20. Hugh Dallas (SCO) 78
21. Mario van der Ende (NED) 76
22. Michel Vautrot (FRA) 76
23. Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez (ESP) 73
24. Horacio Elizondo (ARG) 69
25. Luigi Agnolin (ITA) 68
26. Hector Baldassi (ARG) 68
27. Bernd Heynemann (GER) 66
28. Erik Fredriksson (SWE) 62
29. David Elleray (ENG) 59
30. Manuel Diaz Vega (ESP) 54
31. Alexis Ponnet (BEL) 53
32. Arturo Brizio Carter (MEX) 51
33. Javier Castrilli (ARG) 51
34. Valentin Ivanov (RUS) 51
35. Aron Schmidhuber (GER) 50
36. Luis Medina Cantalejo (ESP) 49
37. Jose Garcia-Aranda Encinar (ESP) 49
38. Ravshan Irmatov (UZB) 48
39. Herbert Fandel (GER) 47
40. Bo Karlsson (SWE) 47
41. Dieter Pauly (GER) 47
42. Gilles Veissiere (FRA) 46
43. Viktor Kassai (HUN) 45
44. Benito Archundia (MEX) 44
45. Marcio Rezende de Freitas (BRA) 44
46. Wolfgang Stark (GER) 44
47. Carlos Amarilla (PAR) 43
48. Tullio Lanese (ITA) 43
49. Ion Craciunescu (ROU) 40
50. Jose Ramiz Wright (BRA) 39

Source: IFFHS