It was announced earlier this week that FIFA’s World Player of the Year and France Football’s Ballon d’Or, the two prizes that merged to form the FIFA Ballon d’Or we all know since 2010, will split up.
With the Ballon d’Or reverting to its old format, a few changes – some major – were announced, those being:
- The voting will only include votes from journalists. National team managers and captains no longer have a vote.
- The shortlist of finalists for the Ballon d’Or award will increase from 23 to 30.
- There will be no three man finalists ahead of the award ceremony.
- The Ballon d’Or will be presented before the end of the calendar year, as oppose to January.
All four changes are big, but the biggest of them all is the removal of votes from national team managers and captains, meaning the winner will only be chosen by journalists.
Whilst many can debate the impartiality of journalists, national team managers and captains are known to be bias. Some have even relied on excluding the two finalists from their top three vote in order to better the chances of the third finalist – that normally being a team-mate.
For example: Wesley Sneijder, not Lionel Messi, would have won the Ballon d’Or in 2010 after leading Inter to the treble and Netherlands to the World Cup final, as he led in votes from journalists alone.
Similarly, Ribery – who also won the treble but with Bayern in 2013 – earned the most votes from the media, but lost to Cristiano that year nonetheless.
Where Ribery and Sneijder missed out, Luis Suarez could gain. With the Uruguayan destined for a nomination for the upcoming prize, this new change may mean he has a better shot at putting an end to the reign of Cristiano and Messi.
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