Hungarian football (soccer) referee Viktor Kassai has been voted the world’s top football (soccer) referee in 2011 in a survey by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), pushing previous year’s winner English Howard Webb to second place.
IFFHS says selected editorial offices and experts from 80 nations of all the football continents took part in 2011 to the annual election of The World’s best Referee, carried out by the IFFHS for the 25th time.
The "Top 22" come from Europe (14 referees), South America (5), Asia (2) and Central America (1). These 22 world’s best referees of the year 2011 possess 17 different nationalities, with only Germany, England, Spain, Argentina and Portugal represented twice; among these, only the two Germans rank among the "Top 11".
36-year-old Hungarian Viktor Kassai from Tatabánya, west of Budapest, ranked 5th in this world ranking in 2010. IFFHS says "the Hungarian constantly provided very good performances in 2011, continued his improvement and became The World’s best Referee 2011." 40 year-old title-holder Howard Webb finished second, narrowly ahead of Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan.
The two best-placed referees in this worldwide selection will be honoured with the golden and silvered IFFHS-trophies during the 2012 World Football Gala.
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