Just so that there is no longer any confusion over who really is the best player in the World, FIFA have announced that they are merging the two titles which are handed out annually to the World’s best. The awards for the Ballon d’Or (a.k.a. The Golden Ball - which has nothing to do with David Beckham) and the FIFA World Player of the Year, have been running concurrently with each other, ever since the latter’s conception in 1991. Just as they did recently with the FIFA World Rankings (which saw Portugal inexplicably lauded as the third best team in the World), FIFA have now moved the goalposts with regards to handing out these titles. The outcome of the FIFA World Player of the Year was subject to a very complicated system of points. Now there will be no arguments over who can claim the accolade of the best player in the World, simply because FIFA want to save the cost of a trophy and spend a few months debating a new points system for the new award. The Ballon d’Or has been in circulation since 1956, was initially for the best European player in the world, although it was changed for any world star who played for a European team, and then for any player anywhere in the world - which was just what the FIFA World Player of the Year award was for.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi won both awards for 2009; Cristiano Ronaldo won both awards in 2008 and Brazil’s Kaka did the double in 2007. You will see a trend here when you look back through the records. Generally, the same player wins both, as there can really be little confusion over who you would give such a prestigious accolade to. The last time the two awards were split out to different players, was when Andriy Shevchenko won the Ballon d’Or in 2004, and Ronaldinho won the FIFA World Player of the Year. The confusion will now end, and never again will arguments be raised over such a perplexities of who really is the best, as FIFA President Sepp Blatter in his infinite wisdom, announced that the two awards will merge, and will simply be known as The Ballon d’Or. How the voting system will work will probably be some confusing amalgamation, as the Ballon d’Or was voted upon by journalists, and it was international coaches and captains who were responsible for casting votes in the FIFA World Player of the Year.
The new, single award will first be given out in January 2011. So, with all of that cleared up, Frank Lampard and England fans will be able to sleep easy at night knowing that the beautiful game is being well managed, as we can clearly see FIFA putting its valuable time to good use instead of figuring out ways to deal with any real ambiguous controversial issues such as video technology and diving. Quite how this decision embraces World football is a mystery anyway. Instead of cutting back the awards, why not divide it up to make it larger? Why not keep the Ballon d’Or for the best player in the world, and then have a FIFA European Player of the Year, a FIFA African Player of the Year, a FIFA Asian Player of the Year and so on and so forth? Why not give the emerging continents a chance at further recognition in raising their levels? In moving the goalposts, FIFA really have fired The Golden Ball into the stands.
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