France Football changes its criteria to choose its winners

MADRID, 11 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The French sports magazine ‘France Football’ announced this Friday that it is going to change its system to designate the winner of the Ballon d’Or, taking into account the football season and with a new way of voting, among other novelties.

Thus, instead of taking into account what was done between January and December and avoiding considering what was done between two half seasons, the next edition will take into account the entire 2021-22 season, which will end with the Women’s Euro Cup, which will be held in England. from July 6 to 31, so the Qatar World Cup will be taken into account for 2023.

In addition, in order to “present a selection of candidates that is as fair, indisputable and relevant as possible”, the process has also been changed and the list of journalists from the magazine will now be added, for the men’s trophy and the Yashin and the Kopa, those of the prize’s ambassador, former Ivorian player Didier Drogba, and that of the voter who came closest to the final result in the last edition. In this case they will be the Vietnamese Truong Anh Ngoc (The Thao & Van Hoa) and the Czech Karolina Hlavackova (Ruik).

As for the voting system, this will be limited to the representatives of the first hundred countries in the FIFA ranking, in the case of the men’s Ballon d’Or, and to the first 50, in the case of the women’s, in search of gaining more legitimacy. .

In the same way, the creators of the award emphasize that when awarding it, “individual performance and the resolute and impressive character of the applicants” are taken into account as the main criteria, as second in importance, “the collective performance and the accumulated record during the season”, and finally “the class of the player and his sense of fair play because setting an example also counts”.