FIFA is unable to be objective in its ‘The Best’ award
France Football was always considered as an inferior award to the FIFA World Player of the Year before the two organisations announced a merger of their flagship awards in 2010, continuing the partnership for 5 seasons, with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi winning 3 awards and Cristiano Ronaldo winning 2.
But they parted ways after France Football refused to co-operate with FIFA when it came to the involvement of fans and coaches in the voting process. Choosing the spirit of journalism over the non-objectivity of FIFA, now France Football will award the Ballon d’Or independently.
In 2016, the two bodies announced the same shortlist for the nominees, and the same occurred the next year. But FIFA has shown its incompetence with its choice of nominees for the shortlist for ‘The Best’ awards this year.
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The international regulatory body has chosen Luka Modrić, Mohamed Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo as the nominees for Best Player this season, with no place in the shortlist for Lionel Messi, who was more prolific than all of these three players.
In an individual award, an individual’s merit should be taken into consideration, with respect to the level of football played by the player. Competitions won by his club should be irrelevant, but even if it is taken into account, how is a domestic double any worse than a Champions League title.
Real Madrid won the Champions League controversially, and they failed to perform at the domestic double, finishing third in the La Liga and were eliminated by minnows Leganés in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey.
And as for Mohamed Salah, he might have scored many goals, but according to FIFA, that should count, as Liverpool failed to win any major tournament last season, despite finishing as runners-up in the Champions League.
Either FIFA is discriminatory towards Leo Messi or it is losing its touch, so ‘The Best’ should not be taken seriously from now on. This year’s Ballon d’Or shortlist hasn’t been announced yet, but it is safe to assume that France Football journalists will be objective and include Lionel Messi.