Journalists from the British website Givemesport have compiled a ranking of the top ten most authoritative football referees in the history of the sport.
According to their assessment, the most influential referee is 64-year-old Italian Pierluigi Collina, the head of the UEFA and FIFA referee committees, who officiated matches in Serie A, Champions League, European Championships, and World Cup from 1991 to 2005.
In second place is 52-year-old Englishman Howard Webb, who worked on Premier League matches from 2003 to 2014. Closing out the top three is 52-year-old Italian Nicola Rizzoli, an elite FIFA referee who officiated Serie A matches from 2002 to 2017.
The full rating of the website is as follows:
- Pierluigi Collina (Italy);
- Howard Webb (England);
- Nicola Rizzoli (Italy);
- Mark Clattenburg (England);
- Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark);
- Mark Halsey (England);
- Sándor Puhl (Hungary);
- Viktor Kassai (Hungary);
- Pedro Proença (Portugal).
In December 2020, France Football magazine named Collina the best referee in the history of world football.
