Ballon d’Or to undergo changes

The Ballon d’Or award will undergo a series of reforms before the next ceremony, the committee responsible for the award announced Friday.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi received the award for the seventh time in November, while Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d’Or in the women’s category.

However, it was Messi’s win that generated controversy after the Argentine was selected ahead of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

As a result, France Football editor-in-chief Pascal Ferre confirmed in L’Equipe that they will modify the criteria for choosing the next winner. Firstly, the award period will be adjusted to the European season instead of the entire calendar year. This year’s award will only take into account players’ performances during the 2021-22 campaign, which ends with the Women’s EURO 2022 tournament in the summer.

As a result, performances at the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar in November and December will be taken into account for the 2023 ceremony.

Secondly, in addition to the journalists involved in the voting, former Chelsea and Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba has joined the process. Drogba will also be joined by Truong Anh Ngoc and Czech Karolina Hlavackova to form a more structured list of nominees.

Thirdly, only representatives of the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings for the men’s award and the top 50 for the women’s award will be eligible to vote.

Finally, the criteria for deciding the winner have changed, as the award will not only consider a player’s individual performance, but will also take into account collective performance, a player’s “class” and his or her record of fair play.

Most importantly, a player’s achievements and performance in previous years will not be taken into account when voting for the winner.