Delivery of the Ballon d’Or is modified: these are the novelties

The Ballon d’Or, the prestigious award given by France Football magazine to the best male and female soccer playerwill be aligned from now on with the sports season, for example 2021-2022, and not with the calendar year, one of the main reforms aimed at making it “more understandable”, the magazine announced this Friday.

Delivered at the end of the year since its creation, in 1956, the trophy will go hand in hand with the football season, from August to July, and will have clearer award criteria, according to the new regulations unveiled by France Football, before
of its Saturday edition.

“It is the opportunity to give a new impulse. Before, it was judged on two half-seasons. It will be more understandable,” said Pascal Ferré, editor-in-chief of France Football, during a presentation this Friday in Boulogne-Billancourt (periphery
from Paris).

Ballon d’Or news

The next delivery of the trophy will take place in September or October 2022, and will be based on the performances of the season that began twelve months ago, especially taking into account the men’s Champions League (final on May 28) and the women’s European Championship ( July 6-31).

This reform occurs while the calendar will be altered next season with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in November-December, and not on the usual summer dates.

The best players at that event will be rewarded at the 2023 Ballon d’Or. France Football made other notable changes, including integrating former star Didier Drogba into the committee tasked with shortlisting the nominees. There will also be changes in the jury.

new voters

Although it will continue to be made up of journalists, with one voter per nation, the jury will henceforth have 100 voters for the men’s Ballon d’Or (for the 170 so far), corresponding to the first 100 nations in the FIFA ranking, and 50 for the women’s Ballon d’Or, under the same criteria.

A way, according to ‘FF’, to guarantee “the most correct evaluation” possible of the voters and their access to the images of the parties. Finally, the award criteria will be clarified: the collective aspect and the trophies won will take a backseat, to the benefit of “individual performances”.

“The player’s class and his sense of fair-play” will also be taken into account. “It is about
to avoid ambiguities, to be clear and consistent: the Ballon d’Or is an individual distinction, based on individual performances”, declared Pascal Ferré.

The player’s career as a whole will no longer be taken into account, to avoid making the Ballon d’Or a “private preserve”. Some measures that respond to the criticism that the award of the trophy aroused in 2021 to Lionel Messi, proclaimed champion for the seventh time, while the second, the Pole Robert Lewandowski, still cannot boast of having this individual award in his record.

AFP

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