DARWEN official Tony Leake believes the process of selection for World Cup referees must be reviewed following a series of high profile blunders.

The Football League official said that too many referees and referee's assistants have been 'out of their depth' in Korea and Japan -- which resulted in the shock exits of the likes of Italy and Spain.

And Leake, who took charge of the Division Three play-off final between Rushden and Diamonds and Cheltenham Town in May, says that only the world's best referees should be in charge of matches in the World Cup finals.

Leake, 44, would like to see officials from the established footballing nations make up the bulk of the World Cup list.

He said: "Top referees from England, Italy, Spain and France and the big South American countries know all about taking charge of high profile matches.

"They have a proven record and have a lot of experience. They referee in leagues where the teams are known around the world."

He added: "In all due respect, who can name a team that plays in Guatemala or Ecuador?

"These referees have no experience of taking charge of big matches and unfortunately they have shown they have been out of their depth on the biggest stage of all.

"It is probably not their fault but they should referee at a standard they are used to and that is not the World Cup finals."

Leake said the referee assistant's decision to rule out Spain's perfectly good goal against South Korea was the perfect example.

He said: "To miss an occasional offside is forgiveable because it is a split second decision. But to flag the ball had gone out of play when it clearly hadn't is inexcusable. It cost Spain a place in the semi finals and I felt very sorry for them."

He added: "I'm not really sure how the process of selection works but it appears that only one referee from each of the top countries is chosen. That means there are a lot of high quality referees who miss out which is clearly wrong in my opinion."