Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
There will be no Ballon d’Or winner in 2020 as the award has been cancelled for this year because of the disruption in football competitions by the coronavirus pandemic.
Organisers of the prestigious Golden Ball award have always honoured the best football player on the planet since 1956. The cancellation of the 2020 edition will be the first in 64 years.
The Ballon d’Or award honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists, club coaches and captains.
The prestigious award, which has been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the last 11 years, will be halted this year due to the “lack of sufficient fair conditions”.
France Football, the French news magazine, which gives out the prize, said that the decision was taken because it would not be right to pick out a leading performer given the circumstances in which professional sport is currently being played out.
France’s Ligue 1 was the most high-profile division in Europe to cancel the remainder of its campaign due to coronavirus, with the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga all resuming after a three-month break.
According to the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Mr Pascal Ferre, in a statement, “For the first time since 1956, the Ballon d’Or will take a break.
“There will be no edition in 2020, because it turns out, after thoughtful consideration, that all the conditions are not met. We believe that such a singular year cannot -and should not- be treated as an ordinary one.
“From a sports perspective, two months (January and February), out of the eleven generally required to form an opinion and decide who should lift the trophies, represent far too little to gauge and judge; without forgetting that the other games were played – or will be played – in unordinary conditions (behind closed doors, with five replacements, Champions League’s Final 8 played in a single game).”
“Finally, the equity that prevails for this honorary title will not be warranted, especially when it comes to accounting and preparation: all the award seekers will not be in the same boat, some having seen their season cut short. Therefore, how can we establish a fair comparison? To avoid overly convoluted calculations and projections, we chose the least bad of the options.
“This decision, which was taken of course with all the Group stakeholders, does not delight us but it seems to be the most responsible one. Protecting the credibility and legitimacy of such an award also means ensuring its flawlessness over time.
“The Ballon d’Or will gather again the football big family and enthusiasts in 2021, to relive the happiness that surrounds the ceremonies as we have experienced them in recent years,” he said.
