The Best: Messi’s Win, FIFPRO XI Shows Why Football Awards Have Lost Its Credibility

The 2019 FIFA Best awards held yesterday at the Teatro Alla Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, with Lionel Messi and Megan Rapinoe winning the two biggest awards of the night as they were named the Best player in the world in their respective categories.

Like many other award shows (not just football), there were a lot of arguments and debate on whether some of the winners last night rightly deserved their place on the podium.

While the arguments are inevitable irrespective of who won, it must be said that last night’s award was one of the biggest shams in the history of football awards.

And that begs the question if modern football awards still have that credibility. Some of the winners showed the awards are now a case of a popularity contest and a player’s reputation.

The FIFPRO XI is proof because there’s no way anybody could justify the decision to include four Real Madrid players in the team despite the Los Blancos having one of their worst campaigns last season.

Los Merengues finished a whopping 19 points behind Barcelona in the La Liga last season. At the same time, they also lost the defence of their champions league crown following a round of 16 exit at the hands of Ajax.

Despite their bad season, Madrid still had Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Marcelo and Eden Hazard in the FIFPRO XI.

Marcelo’s inclusion in the team was the one that caught the eye because this is a guy who was benched for most games last season by Reguilon, who is now on loan at Sevilla.

The fact that he was picked ahead of a Robertson who played a major part in Liverpool’s sixth European title shows the award has lost its credibility and it is now a popularity contest.

To accommodate their darling players, Juventus defender, Mathijs De Ligt, who had a fantastic player with Ajax last season, was shifted to the right back to make room for Sergio Ramos. It showed voters of these awards don’t even watch that many games and only vote based on a player’s popularity.

It was a known fact that both Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander Arnold were the best full-backs in the world last season and that makes the XI a sham.

Man City finished with 98 points to retain their Premier League crown but had no representative, not to talk of Mane and Salah who both finished in the top five, but are also absent.

It now brings conspiracy theories if there is favouritism from FIFA towards Real Madrid and Barcelona players, and maybe it is time for players outside these clubs to consider boycotting these awards if their hard work will not be recognized.

Leaving the FIFPRO XI shame, the decision to hand Messi the best men’s player award also showed it is all about reputation and popularity when it comes to individual awards.

Although Messi had a brilliant year and one could argue it was a deserved win, Van Dijk had a better year than him and should have taken home the award.

Messi’s stats were amazing, but Van Dijk was the reason Liverpool won their sixth European trophy. There’s no disputing of Messi’s talents, and he’s arguably the best player of all time, but the best player of the year is awarded based on performances from last year, and Van Dijk obviously had a better year.

The decision to hand Messi the award also makes a mockery of FIFA’s decision to hand Modric the award ahead of Ronaldo last year. Ronaldo stats last year was identical to that of Messi this year but missed out to Modric who won just because of his performance at the 2018 World Cup.

Modric and Messi’s latest win strengthens the conspiracy theory that was mentioned earlier. As mentioned by this Twitter user in the tweet below, FIFA’s decision to favour players from Barcelona and Real Madrid is a political ploy to help them retain their diminishing power on signing quality players.

With decisions like this, modern football awards have lost their credibility, but the situation can still be salvaged. However, the voting system will need to change.  The recent voting pattern showed that national team captains are assigned 25% of the voting same with their managers. Fans and Journalist are also assigned 25% each.

While this looks good on paper, it needs to change especially with the number of percentages they assign players and managers. The FIFPRO XI showed that these players don’t really watch football that much and are likely to vote based on the reputation of the players nominated.

A national team captain of maybe Jamaica is not likely to see much of Andy Robertson last season, so will probably go for a Marcelo because of his previous performances and popularity.

As mentioned by the same Twitter user, Coaches and players are given too much power in deciding winners of these awards.

Although one could say their judgements should be trusted given they also play the game, the fact they don’t see much games mean they are likely not to vote based on a player’s performance.

For this award to retain its credibility, FIFA will need to take away the voting power of players and managers by introducing a technical committee which may consist of former players who have the time to see matches from different leagues.

Yes, this new system may not automatically end the controversy associated with individual awards. Still, it will reduce it, and players will know they are being rewarded for their hard work, and not for their reputation or popularity.