FIFA have spent the last week riding high on a wave of anger and fury from numerous media outlets due to ‘World Cup Gate.’ The farcical nature of the bidding process and the subsequent decisions has finally made the wider public aware of the innate stupidity and self-importance that Sepp Blatter has injected into football’s autocratic ruling body. The Ballon d’Or is another formerly prestigious institution that has metamorphosed into a shadow of its former self. Originally an award for the best European footballer, voted for by European journalists (with the maiden victory goings to Blackpool’s Stanley Matthews in 1956). In 2010 the award merged with FIFA’s world player of the year award and subsequently stopped being purely about football.
The preliminary nomination list demonstrated the criteria needed for the award quite simply. Said nominations didn’t have to have had a consistently good calender year like in previous years; they had to have either scored goals in a FIFA/UEFA tournament (Asamoah Gyan, Miroslav Klose) or lit up a FIFA/UEFA tournament with a sparkling array of technical ability (Mesut Ozil, Andres Iniesta). Defenders, Defensive midfielders and old-fashioned forwards of the calibre of Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Diego Milito were seemingly not good enough for FIFA.
The farce was complete today upon the release of the final three nominations who will go against each other in this years Ballon d’Or. The top three players of 2010 are the Barcelona trio of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi. It is the first time that one club has provided all three final nominations for the Ballon d’Or since AC Milan provided Marco Van Basten, Franco Baresi and Frank Rijkaard in 1989.
Xavi and Iniesta, without a doubt have had a phenomenal 2010, not only have they demonstrated some of the most aesthetically pleasing football most viewers have ever seen but they have coupled that with success. Both domestically and of course in South Africa. Whilst it is hard to separate the two, it is Xavi who really pulls the strings for Spain and Barcelona. Iniesta floats about the periphery, appearing fleetingly with moments of inspiration. In a World Cup year the winning team was certainly going to provide the bulk of the nominees, therefore it is most probably Iniesta’s extra time winner against the Dutch that has ensured his place in this illustrious trio.
It is strange to find myself questioning the choice of Lionel Messi in a competition to deduce the World’s best footballer. Messi is without a doubt the best individual player in the world and if this award was based on merit then the trio of nominations would include Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo plus one other season after season. Unfortunately FIFA have ensured that this is not the case; a player seemingly has to have shone in FIFA’s official competitions. Something Messi failed to do this year, going out anonymously to Inter Milan in the Champions League Semi Final and failing to even score in the 2010 World Cup. So based on FIFA’s own twisted logic for this award Messi shouldn’t be on this list.
It is Wesley Sneijder that should really be joining the two Spaniards, but according to FIFA’s nomination criteria winning a treble of domestic cup, domestic league and having a starring role in a Champions League final win is all rendered inconsequential by losing in FIFA’s showpiece event; the World Cup final. A game in which Sneijder unlocked the Spanish defence with a trademark through ball, sending Arjen Robben through on goal. The rest is history, but had Robben tucked away that chance in the dying stages of the game and the Netherlands gone on to win, it would have been Sneijder and Robben sat at football’s top table. In a non World Cup year where the Champions League becomes the ultimate barometer for success the nominations would have been hugely different but it is devastatingly harsh for Sneijder to miss out.
The voters may well have been swayed by Sneijder and Inter’s mixed performances in the second half of 2010, as it has to be noted that the Ballon d’Or is an award for a calender year. A factor which will have most probably lead to Lionel Messi’s nomination, anyone who watched a Messi inspired Barcelona put Real Madrid to the sword would have seen the absence of Messi as a huge folly.
Like the World Cup decision the whole process of choosing the Ballon d’Or nominations has shown that FIFA is a power that is losing touch with the fundamental aspect of football: what happens on the pitch. It shouldn’t matter whether a player has played well in a FIFA tournament, this is apparently an award based on a calender year. Not six weeks in June. Congratulations have to go to the successful trio who do deserve their place. But by ensuring that the award is so clearly based on FIFA competitions, it is FIFA who leaves itself so clearly open to such criticism.