Cristiano Ronaldo's mother, Dolores Aveiro, has claimed that football ‘mafia' within the circuit was behind his son's inability to win the Ballon d'Or crown.
The Juventus star, who has won the crown five times, failed to attend the event as the award was given to Argentina and Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi.
However, Ronaldo's mother believed that the former Real Madrid star would have won more international awards if he were to be an English or Spanish player.
“There is a mafia. That's the right word to define it. Yes, there is a mafia in football,” she told the Portuguese press.
“If there wasn’t a football mafia, my son would have more [individual] international trophies. If you see everything that happened, you will realise that it is the mafia.
“If he was Spanish or English they would not do what they did to him. But since he's Portuguese and from Madeira… well, this happens.”
Ronaldo is again in the running for the Ballon d’Or this year, with the award due to be dished out in December.
