Football: revolution of the rules for the Golden Ball

So it's a revolution.

From this season, a new era begins for the Ballon d'Or, the most prestigious individual award for footballers.

This Friday, France Football, creator of the trophy 66 years ago, announces major rule changes in the awarding, starting with the calendar used to judge performance.

In total, four major developments are announced.

A new calendar

Since its creation in 1956, the Ballon d'Or was awarded at the end of the calendar year, which forced voters to judge performance over two half-seasons (January-July and August-December).

From the current financial year (2021-2022), the trophy will be awarded at the end of the football season (from August 2021 to July 2022).

Either from the start of major championships to the conclusion of major international competitions.

"We end up with a clarification of the performances to be counted and evaluated", explains Pascal Ferré, editor-in-chief of France Football.

The awards will therefore be given in August 2022. The World Cup in Qatar (November 20 - December 18) will be taken into account for the awarding of the 2023 Ballon d'Or.

A new way to establish the final lists

Each year, 30 men and 20 women were chosen by the editorial staff of France Football and L'Equipe as "candidates" for the Ballons d'Or.

From now on, three new jurors are called upon to draw up these lists: Ambassador Didier Drogba as well as the last two international journalists who were the most relevant in the previous vote.

France Football thus announces that the Vietnamese Truong Ahn Ngoc (from The Thao & Van Hoa media) and the Czech Karolina Hlavackova (from the Ruik media) had given the exact quinté of the 2021 winners. They will participate in the creation of the lists.

A reduction in the number of voters

Once the lists were established, 170 journalists from all over the world were called upon to vote for the future winners.

France Football announces that it wants to switch to "an elite of true connoisseurs".

They will now only be 100 to vote for the men, chosen on the basis of the first 100 countries in the Fifa ranking.

For women, the top 50 countries in the ranking will be taken into account.

All so that, according to "FF", "fanciful" votes are avoided.

Disappearance of the "player's career" criterion

And here is the last change: France Football removes the criterion “career of the player”, which was the third to be taken into account for the voters.

"A way of considering the race for the Ballon d'Or as an open competition, and not as a private preserve", writes Pascal Ferré.

A development that some already interpret as an “anti-Messi” rule, sometimes chosen automatically among voters in recent seasons.

The three criteria are now as follows: 1. the individual performances and the decisive and impressive character of the contenders;

2. the collective performances and the prize list accumulated during the season;

3. the class of the player and his sense of fair play.