FIFA's prestigious The Best awards have been struck by a vote rigging storm amid claims indicating the ballot was rigged — with the governing body suggesting Egypt's votes were left out after the signatures were written in capital letters.

Lionel Messi walked away with the best men's player accolade at the glitzy ceremony in Milan on Monday, pipping Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk to the award.

Given Van Dijk's remarkable season at Liverpool, where he led the club to their sixth Champions League title, and Ronaldo's excellent campaign at Juventus - Messi's winning award was met with a degree of surprise.

There was also a belief that Mohamed Salah would be a strong contender for the prize.

And now the Barcelona superstar's claim to the honour has been thrown into serious doubt following questions over the legitimacy of the voting.

The Egyptian football association, Sudan's coach Zdravko Logarusic and Nicaragua's captain Juan Barrera have raised concerns over the authenticity of the ballots - citing uncounted or misallocated votes.

Egypt's association called on FIFA to explain why the votes of its national coach Shawki Ghareeb and captain Ahmed were not taken into account. Ghareeb and El-Mohammadi are not mentioned in FIFA's publication of official votes.

FIFA have now indicated that they were not included because signatures on Egypt's ballots 'were in capital letters and thus seemed not valid (not authentic).'

They added that 'voting forms were also not signed by the (federation) general secretary which is mandatory.'

The Egyptian Football Federation claim they officially sent Egypt's vote to FIFA on August 15, four days before the deadline.

Their statement had earlier asked 'FIFA why the Egyptian vote was not accepted' and goes on to confirm the EFA have opened an 'investigation' into the circumstances of this failure.

The Egyptian federation was in turmoil in July and August after its leadership resigned due to the national team's Round of 16 exit at the African Cup of Nations it hosted.

Later in August, FIFA sent an emergency management team to run the Egypt federation. Additionally, Sudan's coach Lugarisic and Nicaragua's Juan Barrera took to social media to indicate that the votes published by FIFA, in their names, did not reflect their actual choices.

Lugarisic says his first choice was Egypt's Salah but FIFA's voting document showed Messi as his first selection.

Barrera is also adamant that he did not vote for Messi, as claimed by FIFA.

Keep reading: https://www.queensmail.com/2019/09/fifa-vote-rigging-storm-captains.html

Source: [url]QUEENSMAIL.COM[/url]

oga only two people made that claim and none of them voted for van dijk or Ronaldo, so with or without their vote,messi would still have won.

secondly FIFA could not have altered the results and still release it to the public. so it is either a case of voters madness or system malfunctions but definitely not rigging.

lastly the complainers said they voted for salah which means the only possible alteration among the three nominees would be the displacement of ronaldo from third for fourth place salah and rightfully so if you ask me. Ronaldo did nothing on a personal level.

I thought only INEC were capable of such irregularities....

igetdata:
oga only two people made that claim and none of them voted for van dijk or Ronaldo, so with or without their vote,messi would still have won.

secondly FIFA could not have altered the results and still release it to the public. so it is either a case of voters madness or system malfunctions but definitely not rigging.

lastly the complainers said they voted for salah which means the only possible alteration among the three nominees would be the displacement of ronaldo from third for fourth place salah and rightfully so if you ask me. Ronaldo did nothing on a personal level.

And what do you mean by personal level ?? Or you want me to start opening history books for you and clear your "Personal level" Shiit !!

Noone know their criteria for the award..
If you know, tell me.. And don't bring one Shiitty "Personal level" here...

Why do you mean by coacheS captainS. You sha want to bring Messi down. Fifa has addressed their complains they voted with small letter which was invalid and the other was how they received it

Baba if there are errors and rigging, kindly tell us how those two votes would have change the outcome of the FIFA POTY Award. Let's not argue out of sentiment and let's know who the real winner would have been, that's why FIFA made the whole voting exercise open to the public domain.

Olufela30:


And what do you mean by personal level ?? Or you want me to start opening history books for you and clear your "Personal level" Shiit !!

Noone know their criteria for the award..
If you know, tell me.. And don't bring one Shiitty "Personal level" here...

STFU

you want to know the criteria. the criteria is whoever the voters pick with their bias and sentiments coming to play.

I repeat, mane and salah played better than him last season / year and if most of the voters understand that the award is actually for the best player of the previous year and not for their favourite footballer then your man would have been in a more lowly position.

yungsmart:
Why do you mean by coacheS captainS. You sha want to bring Messi down. Fifa has addressed their complains they voted with small letter which was invalid and the other was how they received it

dont mind these guys, they are trying too hard.

remove all the complainers votes and even give it to vvd or ronaldo, messi will still win.

he is the man of the people.

If there are errors and rigging, kindly tell us how those two votes would have change the outcome of the FIFA POTY Award. Let's not argue out of sentiment and let's know who the real winner would have been, that's why FIFA made the whole voting exercise open to the public domain.

mumu tapnaldo fans started editing some voters articles even the so called coach and captains have deny their Photoshop evidence.

I feel so sorry for penaldo fans

igetdata:




STFU

you want to know the criteria. the criteria is whoever the voters pick with their bias and sentiments coming to play.

I repeat, mane and salah played better than him last season / year and if most of the voters understand that the award is actually for the best player of the previous year and not for their favourite footballer then your man would have been in a more lowly position.

So football has become a game of sentiment abi ??

Story for the gods.

CR7 fans are so pained that they sha want to discredit Messi's triumph by any means necessary, even when it's glaring that the likely impact of this isolated anomalies would be for CR7 to move from 3rd down to 4th, as 75% of the complainants are M. Salah protagonists, none of whom voted for Ronaldo.