Anyone with even a passing interest in the game knows that the pre-eminent individual award in the world is the Ballon d'Or. Initially, it was started as the European Footballer of the Year by the French magazine creatively named France Football and slowly it merged with the FIFA Player of the Year to become the FIFA Ballon d'Or that was presented from 2010 to 2015.
This year there's been another change. The Ballon d’Or award’s association with FIFA ended earlier this year, as L’equipe did not renew their contract to name the FIFA World Player of the Year award that FIFA used to host. However, FIFA have announced a new set of awards that will simply be titled, ‘The Best FIFA Football Awards’.
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FIFA announced the release of the new awards with a statement from President Infantino -
“This event will be about football and its most passionate participants – players, coaches, and fans. It is a new event with new approaches to celebrating the game we all love.”
While the voting for these awards have been exclusively under the purview of players, coaches and select journalists, FIFA has come up with a novel way of including the most important stakeholder in the game – us, the viewing public.
They have committed that 25% of the voting will be apportioned to the public – a quota that will be steadfastly met to ensure the footballing fraternity takes cognizance of the public's mood. The vote is split equally between four voting groups of participants: national coaches of FIFA Member Associations, their team captains, a select group of media from those countries and fans.
They've revealed how you can vote for each category – and it's been kept very simple. You will have to first register on the site with a valid e-mail (and get yourself verified) and then go to each category where you can pick your choices of who should be 3-2-1.
Also, Read – FIFA announce 23-man shortlist for 'The Best FIFA Men's Player 2016'
Be careful, though, because once voted, that is that – you get no second chances to change your players or the order.
For example, for you to vote for the BEST Men's player of 2016, head on over to – http://www.fifa.com/the-best-fifa-football-awards/best-fifa-mens-player/index.html
The voting has already started and will close on the 22nd of November, so make sure to hurry up and cast your votes for your favourites!
Fans can also vote for the FIFA Puskas Award (Best Goal of the Year) and the voting opens between mid-November and 9th January, as well as the FIFA FAN Award – for which the voting is open from December 2 to January 9). You don't need to be a FIFA.com club member to vote in these categories!
The awards gala will take place in FIFA's headquarters in Zurich on January the 9th , 2017
