This is a moot point with some, however the facts are incontrovertible whether folks are bothered or not.

Yesterday should have been a celebration of a magnificent achievement for Liverpool Football Club and for Holland. Being recognized by all his peers in the media, Virgil Van Dijk should have been lauded the World over as World's Best Player 2018/19. Instead as I previously posted in another thread he and everybody else on the shortlist went to a foregone conclusion, a one horse race, that had already been fixed.

The Balon D'Or award yesterday although not directly voted on by FIFA was hugely influenced by their award given in September 2019 also to Lionel Messi. In fact if you look at both awards over the years more often than not whomever wins that FIFA award is also awarded The Balon D'Or which is regarded as the definitive title of World's Best Player.

There has been some standout performers over the past few decades from The Premier League and other Leagues yet time and again they are overlooked by FIFA when it comes to truly recognizing them. More often then not especially so in the past decade or more, if a player's native tongue isn't a variation of Spanish and they played for anybody but Real Madrid or Barcelona they never had a chance. Is it because commercially and financially it is so much more beneficial to have a linguistic Spanish variation speaking player? it sure would seem so.

Let's not forget FIFA have been mired in corruption and with the next World Cup being held in Qatar they are heavily influenced by money, with integrity and human rights issues being a non-entity with their way of thinking.

I do believe if Man City's Owners nefarious ways takes them to the unfair dominance with their underhand financial actions, then we are likely to see another unfair legacy of awards handed out by FIFA. However currently until Man City cheat their way to their first CL Title we are likely to see the certainty of the player receiving FIFA's accolade, accepting his award in some variation of Spanish.

Thoughts?

Another one of your conspiracy theories. Messi has again been outstanding winning the golden boot and it's the journalists who have voted. Yes, we knocked them out of the CL, but Barca still won the league thanks to Messi. In fact the journalists in Europe voted more for VVD but overall Messi still won with the big majority coming from America, North and South. Last but not least, it's not about Liverpool or Barca or Real as it is an individual trophy. Didn't CR win it at United?

Funny enough, just watching a programme on Canal+ with African journalists/reporters, some were former players and they are saying it's scandalous that Mane is only 4th and in their mind he has been better than VVD over 2019. So it's all subjective and the one with the majority of votes won, doesn't mean everybody agrees.

Who cares - these award shows (just like Oscars, Grammys, British Bake off, etc.) are all politically driven, purely subjective, and in no way reflecting of a true meritocracy. Pay it no mind and worry about real trophies. I'm sure VVD has put it out of his mind already - and it should be given no more credence than the annual joke that it is.

I agree that we shouldn't worry about it but I don't know what you mean by meritocracy on this, it will stay subjective and the only way to decide is through voting as it is done currently.

Messi had the most impressive numbers as an attacker, and attackers win. Ribery or Nuer probably should have won it in 2013 when Bayern won the treble, and there was an argument for Mane or Virgil last year, but Messi had an incredible season. It's a subjective call.

Messi is awesome in fact I think he is the most exciting and best player ever

It's not about numbers only, we have to measure the impact of the player on a club otherwise defenders and goalkeepers will never win. Vvd and Ali transformed the club when they arrived, Vvd has been on excellent form for almost 2 seasons, propelling Liverpool to new heights. Ali has been magnificent also but he won an award thankfully. Vvd should of won all day long.

A lot of journalists and captains have a similar opinion as yours, but more thought Messi was better, this is how democracy works. as I said yesterday, lots of African reporters thought Mane was better than VVD in 2019, even Messi voted for the former.

Its about who the advertisers/sponsors want, Messi is the pin up boy of world football, he's a great player to be fair, so it's not like they have given it to a numpty.

At the end of the day, how do you compare a CB against a CF, their attributes are totally different, so this just comes down to coter opinion as they are not like for like comparisons.

I think VvD should have got it as Messi had already won it 5 times, so to reward VvD for an outstanding year and the impact he has had on Liverpool, helping win the CL and leading a PL challenge, but Fifa doesn't work that way, only 2 defenders have ever won it, and thats after they won the World Cup as captain.

It's not just about VVD missing out here, surely the award should be measured on achievement over the season. VVD was integral to a Champions League winning squad and just missing out on a PL winners medal by 1 point and a record points haul by a 2nd place team in the most competitive league in the world. Also add the fact he was part of a defence that only conceded 22 goals over the course of a very hard 38 game season. We can also throw in a H2H with Messi with VVD coming out on top in that CL Semi-Final.

This has happened more than a few times before where the winner did not deserve the award but was a more commercially and financially beneficial option to FIFA.

It's not FIFA but journalists and team captains around the world who voted, FFS.

I'm certain FIFA has a lot of influence in this award to, along with their handling of awarding the World Cup winning venues.

They probably do it just to wind you up.

You can be as certain as you want, but FIFA officials don't vote on the matter. This isn't even FIFA's award. The FIFA Best award is completely separate.

It's called "FIFA Ballon d'Or" so I am sure FIFA have some influence!

I don't think it's still called FIFA Ballon D'Or, now that there are 2 trophies, one organised by FIFA and Ballon D'Or by France Football. In any case, it's voted by journalists and team captains, so what influence would the organisers have. What influence will the UK electoral commission have in the next week elections?

My point was more money influences these things, so sponsors/advertisers, I can see the likes of Adidas who sponsor Messi 'advising' their other sponsored players to vote Messi, journalistic votes would be easily won by promising exclusives to journalists from their roster of other stars, so you can see how it can be done, City are recruiting 'influencers' for this reason, to sell their 'brand', they all do it.

At the end of the day, Messi is a great player, so it's not big deal he has won it, it's not like a huge miscarriage of justice, I was more surprised when Modric won it last year, but that was good as it broke Messi & Ronaldo's monopoly on it.

How would the sponsors know who voted for whom?

I'm not saying they know, I am saying sponsors can influence the vote, say your a PL player who's got a �1 million a year sponsorship deal with someone like Adidas, if Adidas say to your agent 'it would be good for you to vote Messi' as he's nominated for the Ballon d'Or and is also sponsored by Adidas, you are probably going to vote for Messi as that's allot of money you want to keep when your sponsorship deal is negotiated again.

These awards hold allot of prestige and get allot of press, so they will sell allot of shirts/boots/merchandise on the back of these, that's why they pay the players �millions to wear their brand.