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On Monday, the world turned its attention to London where The Best FIFA Football Awards 2018 was held. The colourful ceremony saw footballers rewarded for their efforts and performances in the year under review.
But while the organisation of the award can be marked with full distinction, a number of the recipients turned out to be questionable. Luka Modric breaking the duopoly between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to win the FIFA Best Player Awards was less debatable, but the entire ceremony was shrouded in controversy as well.
There are some categories where one would wonder how the winners were selected in the face of more deserving candidates. The FIFPro World XI for instance generated much controversy following some names that appeared on the team.
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The Puskas Award for the best goal of the year which went to Mohamed Salah, was also another decision that bemused many football fans across the globe.
At this rate, The Best FIFA Football Awards is fast becoming a big joke. Here’s why.
#4 It’s no longer credible
To begin with, how on earth did Mohamed Salah win the Puskas Award? The Best FIFA Football Awards has always had its controversies, but there was a time when the award was known to have some credibility.
Currently though, that credibility is vanishing with each passing year. A look at the other goals nominated for the Puskas Award depicts how nonsensical Salah’s win was. It virtually made no sense that the worst goal among the lot won the award.
Perhaps it’s time FIFA makes changes it to its voting system. Otherwise if this should continue, then a time will come when the awards will not only lose its credibility, but also its relevance.
Throw in the chaotic picks in the FIFPro World XI team, and you would realise why many fans are gradually losing faith in the credibility of The Best FIFA Football Awards.
#3 Deserving players are ignored
Another reason why The Best FIFA Football Awards is fast becoming a joke is that well-deserving players are getting ignored in favour of less-deserving ones. The Puskas Award is just one example, but how do you explain Daniel Alves getting into the FIFPro team of the year?
To be fair, the awards now looks like one which has been made to sideline Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. There is no doubt that both players deserved to be in the top three nominees. Messi may not have had a good World Cup, but overall he still had a better season that Luka Modric and Mohamed Salah.
However, the Argentinian was inexplicably omitted from the final three. Ronaldo fans also have every right to be aggrieved that the Juventus attacker did not win the award. The Portuguese was Real Madrid’s main man as they won the Champions League last season, and also scored 4 goals at the World Cup, despite Portugal’s early exit.
If that does not qualify him to win the FIFA Best Player award, then no else deserves it. The fact is that deserving players continue to be ignored in all categories, and that could soon be the undoing of the awards.
#2 Too much controversy
As stated earlier, there is no award ceremony without controversy, but once the controversies continue piling up, it dents the award. That is exactly the case of the FIFA Best Football Awards currently. The controversies are simply one too many, and the worst part is that they can’t be explained.
How Mohamed Salah was nominated in the top three but failed to make the FIFPro World XI is a mystery, how Thibaut Courtois won the FIFA Best Goalkeeper and still lost out in the team of the year to David de Gea is even more surprising. And finally, Marta winning the women’s player of the year over Ada Hegerberg remains confusing.
Awards are meant to encourage competition, but it doesn’t bode well if controversies begin to overshadow the real winners. I don’t think any player would be happy to win an award that is being debated by everyone around him.
Such a scenario would only depict an award that has no relevance, and unfortunately that is the direction The Best FIFA Football Awards is currently heading.
#1 Voting is clearly based on sentiments
Again, when you consider some of the categories and their respective winners, it is clear for all to see that they were voted based on sentiments rather than who actually deserved it.
The Puskas Award (sorry if it’s being repeated) was just shameful. The fact that many fans habour affection towards a particular player does not mean he should win an award over another who deserved it better. This is neither a popularity contest nor an emotional bidding.
The fact remains that Ronaldo and Messi are the two best players in the world. If any player wants to usurp them, that player must earn it through performances on the pitch. It is not the faults of Ronaldo and Messi that their standards are way higher than the rest.
Therefore, no sentiments should be encouraged during the voting process. If Ronaldo and Messi are good enough to win it for the next 10 years, so should it be. Otherwise, this joke of an awards is what we will become accustomed to – one where sentiments override the sense of voters.
