France Football announced that it ended its six-year partnership with FIFA for the Ballon d’Or award, the award given to the best football player on the planet. The 61st Ballon d’Or will debut a new era for the trophy that was created by France Football in ’56. After six years with FIFA, in a system that included captains, managers and journalists voting for the Ballon d’Or winner, the rules will change starting with the ’16 recipient. The new system will be comprised of only journalists voting for the winner. The other rule changes include: the vote will be decided from a list of 30 players, as opposed to the current list of 23; there will be no announcement of the three finalists before the final vote; the winner and the complete list of votes will be unveiled before the end of the year (France Football). In London, Jack Austin reported France Football’s Ballon d’Or award combined with FIFA’s World Player of the Year award in ’10 “to become the FIFA Ballon d’Or” in a deal worth £13M. Since the merger, only Lionel Messi (’10, ’11, ’12 and ’15) and Cristiano Ronaldo (’13 and ’14) have “picked up the award, meaning the pair will be the only winners of the FIFA Ballon d’Or.” It is believed the move “will give players other than Messi and Ronaldo a chance to win the award.” It was reported that FIFA President Gianni Infantino was "keen to revert back to the two annual awards, but no announcement has yet been made on the World Player of the Year award." The World Player of the Year award was introduced in '91 to honor players from all around the world "rather than just those based in Europe," although no player representing a non-European club has ever finished in the top three (INDEPENDENT, 9/20).
