He told www.fifaworldcup.yahoo.com: “FIFA owes it to itself, in its own flagship competition, to send out the best referees, even more so because hundreds of millions of players and referees around the world are watching what happens in Germany with the desire to improve themselves and understand how the game is changing.

“Instead, I’ve noted that instructions aren’t being followed consistently from one match to another.

“When a coach complains to me that shirt-pulling earned his player a yellow card one night and nothing for his team’s group rivals the next, how am I supposed to respond?

“And then there are the tackles from behind I’ve seen go unpunished and the violent conduct that has escaped sanction, not to mention the serious errors made in applying the rules.”

Blatter vowed that he would continue to push for the number of professional referees to be increased.

He said: “If we want better matches, we need better referees as well. Because of that, we need to push for the professionalisation of the refereeing corps and spread the net in terms of who decides who the best ones are.

“I will make sure FIFA leads this debate once the World Cup is over.”