Ballon d'Or conspiracies

Ever since Zurich elevated the status of Ballon d'Or to mean the world's best footballer, conspiracy theories and rigging claims have dominated the talk. FIFA supremos have escalated the debate with their usual arrogance as well as utterances that give more credence to the claims. Particularly, Sepp Blatter, Julio Grondana and Michel Platini have on different occasions seemed to legitimize the claims through their actions. The Swiss "legend" and the French "wizard" have time and again derided Cristiano Ronaldo for his "perceived" flashy lifestyle - in a sense, they may be right but again how does that relate to football? FIFA gems offer lectures on desired traits yet they are unable to account for financial misappropriation and World Cup rigging claims as regards hosting rights and bidding! How ironic! Cases of rigging and complex modules of favoritism are vividly etched in our memories. Case study - in 2010, Lionel Messi won the award ahead of Wesley Sneijder. The Dutchman seemed the favorite to land the coveted award given that he won a treble with Inter Milan - Italian Serie A, the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Champions League. He also guided Oranje to a respectable runners-up position during the 2010 World Cup. The Argentine only won the La Liga title and exited the World Cup stage without scoring. Funny enough, Wesley Sneijder wasn't even on the podium finishes - Messi won the award, Xavi Hernandez scooped second position while Andreas Iniesta came third. Wesley Sneijder would then be labeled as "inconsistent" by sections of the media in a gesture widely seen as PR gimmick on behest of FIFA, by the entire footballing community. The reason given was that the Argentine scored more goals in the domestic campaign. In 2011, FIFA shot themselves on the foot when Lionel Messi won the award again. It was typical double speak perfected by Blatter and his ilk as they disregarded preference on total goals scored. Cristiano Ronaldo was the top scorer in La Liga as well as in Europe - winning the Pichichi and Copa del Rey in the process. Messi won the Ballon d'Or on account that Barcelona won the Champions League and La Liga. Questionably, most goals did not guarantee the award - contradicting their earlier stand! Fair enough - but again, why did they overlook such statistics the previous year when Sneijder would have won it fair and square as he had even achieved more than what Messi had won? Double standards! FIFA's double speak was to be re-defined in 2012 when Messi won the award again. Curiously, Cristiano Ronaldo had won the La Liga, guided Real Madrid to the semi finals of the Champions League as well as almost aiding Spain on a solitary basis during the UEFA Euro championships. Apparently, the reason given was that Messi scored more goals in Europe than Ronaldo! Again, FIFA changed tactics to facilitate the Argentine's win! Shockingly, FIFA din't see anything wrong with their antics and double speak! The process of voting for the best player has time and again been questioned by participants and experts. Several cases of conspiracies and hoodwink have threatened to entirely annul the credibility of the poll. Undeniably, the voting process has been a forum for settling scores - both Ronaldo and Messi have never voted for each other as the best! Their "perceived" friendly captains and coaches around the world slug it out during the voting process! There have been cases of invalidated votes! What a loophole to circumvent the process so as to favor the desired individual! There was an incidence in which Argentina had its first vote listed as invalid after their captain Javier Mascherano stated that he never got a ballot! Mark van Bommel's votes as Nerherland's captain in 2010 were as well annulled for reasons not clear. In 2013, the then Qatar's national team coach stated that he was "firmly ordered" by the country's hierarchy to vote for Cristiano Ronaldo. It was then alleged that the vote was a "gift" to Blatter for two things - making sure that Qatar got the rights to host the 2022 World Cup and also to purify Blatter's image as not one against Ronaldo! Goran Pandev once insisted that he voted for Jose Mourinho as the best manager yet his vote was not counted! In 2013, the then Kuwait's coach claimed that he voted for Zlatan Ibrahimovic despite FIFA claims that he voted for Messi. The then Albania's coach was more precise as he directed tirade towards FIFA for interchanging his first place vote with his third - Ibrahimovic for Ronaldo. Fiji's coach claimed that his third place vote went to Robert Lewandowski despite him not voting for the Polish striker! Uli Hoeness - former Bayern Munich's president, once stated that Franck Ribery's failure to land the award stemmed from the fact that FIFA conspired against him since he wasn't "glamorous enough". Lest we forget, nominations to the FIFPro XI depend on which team the player is from! Expect large scale demonstrations on the streets of Manchester, Lisbon and Madrid if Cristiano Ronaldo does not win the award!