Soccer's world governing body, FIFA, and the organizers of the World Cup finals in Germany on Friday announced the list of 23 referees from as many countries who will be blowing the whistles at this summer's tournament.

They were chosen from the original list of 44 prospective officials whose performances were evaluated by FIFA officials over the past 18 months. The referees were also observed at two FIFA workshops in Frankfurt. Europe has the largest contingent, with 10 officials, including France's Eric Poulat, German Markus Merk, Spaniard Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez, Massimo De Santis of Italy and Britain's Graham Poll. There are two referees each from Asia and Africa, three from North and Central America, five from South America and one from Oceania.