Ballon D’Or cancelled for the first time in award’s history due to disruption in Football calendar
Lionel Messi has won Ballon Do’r for a record six times — one more than long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
Paris, France:
The prestigious Ballon d’Or will not be awarded for the first time in 64 years of its history this year because of the disturbance because of the coronavirus pandemic in the football season. Created in 1956 and awarded by the France Football Magazine, Ballon D’ Or is the most prestigious individual trophy in Football and was first awarded in the 1956 to Stanley Matthews.
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi won the yesteryear’s award, the magazine also started giving out a women’s award in 2018, but as of now it has also been put on hold. The Organisers of the award, Group L’ Equipe, announced in a statement on Monday 20th July that the conditions for the award to be given have not been met owing to the disturbances in the football calendar also the modification in the game’s rule the award was also impacted.
France Football editor Pascal Ferre told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “It’s such a strange year that we couldn’t treat it as an ordinary one. Let’s say that we started talking about (making the decision) at least two months ago, It isn’t a decision we took lightly but we had to accept it couldn’t be a normal or typical Ballon d’Or winner, and what really worried us it that it wouldn’t be fairly awarded.”
Lionel Messi has won it a record six times — one more than long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
Both the European Championship and the Copa America postponed this year, the possible outcomes of the award taking place laid its bets on Champions League because with its format intentionally providing a shortcut for an eventual prize-winner.
“The Ballon d’Or would have been decided over just three games: quarterfinal, semi-final, final,” Ferré said. “There were loads of changes (to soccer’s rules) which are totally legitimate and which we don’t contest given the worldwide health crisis, but we couldn’t consider this as a typical year. Exceptional circumstances led to an exceptional decision.”