GENEVA, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Referees Kyros Vassaras of Greece, Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez of Spain and Carlos Batres of Guatemala will not officiate at the World Cup finals because of fitness problems, FIFA said on Monday.

    Vassaras and Mejuto Gonzalez unluckily miss out because although they are fit, some of their assistants have not passed fitness tests so the whole trio have been dropped.

    Batres has failed to recover from a cruciate knee injury in time.

    Under new FIFA rules introduced ahead of this year's finals, all three members of the refereeing trio, must have passed fitnesstests by last week.

    Belgium's Frank De Bleeckere, who failed to complete the fitness tests in March due to injury, passed them in April and will now make his debut as a World Cup referee.

    Batres will be replaced in Germany by Mexico's Marco Rodriguez. Vassaras will be replaced by Italian Roberto Rosetti and Mejuto Gonzalez by his compatriot Luis Medina Cantalejo.

    The referees, who for the first time will have World Cup assistants from the same country or the same confederation, will be representing 21 different countries. Italy and Mexico will be the only countries to have two referees in action in Germany.

    FIFA's Referees Committee made their decisions following the test results of the referees and their assistants at a workshop in Germany between April 18 and 21.

    FIFA have five reserve referees and 10 reserve assistants who will replace any other official unable to take part for whatever reason, such as injury or illness.

    The refereeing trios will arrive in Germany on May 26 and have further tests before the World Cup gets underway on June 9.

    FIFA will announce the identity of the refereeing trio for each of the 64 matches 48 hours in advance of the kickoffs. Enditem