The coaches of Uruguay and Ghana brushed aside conspiracy theories suggesting that English referee Howard Webb was replaced as the man in charge of their World Cup quarter-final.

No nonsense: Kaka is shown a yellow card by Howard Webb

It follows the controversy over Frank Lampard's disallowed goal against Germany.

A Uruguayan referee, Jorge Larrionda, was in charge of the England versus Germany match when Lampard's shot clearly crossed the line but no goal was given.

Fifa announced on Thursday that Portugal's Olegario Benquerenca would take charge of Uruguay v Ghana and insisted there was no question – as has been rumoured – that Webb, who had not been allocated a last-eight match, had originally been earmarked for the match.

Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said: "It seems every time there is a slight coincidence of any sort we start to dramatise things.

"We have nothing to do with refereeing – they are like a player and they can do well or do badly, we don't have any suspicions, it does not exist as far as we are concerned.

"I don't know if my players even know who the referee is.''

Ghana's coach Milovan Rajevac added: "I pay no attention to who will be our referee – it's the highest level of competition and the referee will be of the highest level.''