The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) has chosen Howard Webb from England als world’s best referee of 2013.

Experts from 70 countries and from all the football continents took part in the 2013 annual election for the World’s Best Referee, the 27 th time it has been carried out by the IFFHS. The “Top 10” come from 9 different countries, only Italy is represented by two referees: Nicola Rizzoli and Gianluca Rocchi. The list is dominated by European referees. Ravshan Irmatov from Uzbekistan is the only non-European on the list.

Howard Webb: “word’s best referee of 2013” according to IFFHS.

1. Howard WEBB (England): 102 points
2. Nicola RIZZOLI (Italy): 82 points
3. Viktor KASSAI (Hungary): 53 points
4. Felix BRYCH (Germany): 42 points
5. Cüneyt CAKIR (Turkey): 40 points
6. Bjorn KUIPERS (Netherlands): 38 points
7. Pedro PROENCA (Portugal): 35 points
8. Ravshan IRMATOV (Uzbekistan): 29 points
9. Carlos VELASCO CARBALLO (Spain): 22 points
10. Gianluca ROCCHI (Italy): 17 points

This list might help you with predicting World Cup Referees. You can win a complete Adidas outfit (sponsored by refereeworld.com) by guessing the World Cup referees via a page on this blog. Check this for more info.

Pedro Proenca was the winner in 2012, followed by Cakir (2) and Webb (3).

IFFHS has previously release a list with the best referees of the first 10 years in the 21st century. Markus Merk from German was the best according to their experts.

1. Dr. Markus Merk Deutschland 135
2. Óscar Julián Ruiz Colombia 104
3. Ľuboš Micheľ Slovensko 96 and Jorge Luis Larrionda Uruguay 96

Read the full list with best referees of the first decade of the 21st century.