Ballon d'Or Journalist Banned After 'Showing Bias' in Voting

A former Argentinian representative lost his place on the Ballon d'Or voting panel after he "lost objectivity" with his top five picks.

We are just hours away from finding out the next Ballon d'Or winner as front-runners Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele, amongst 28 others, compete for football's most prestigious prize.

In terms of rules, the Ballon d'Or is awarded by an international jury of specialised journalists, with one representative per country, from the top 100 in the latest FIFA rankings for men and the top 50 for women.

Each juror selects ten players in descending order of merit from a list of 30.

The Ballon d'Or is then awarded to the player with the highest number of points, with the ten selected players being awarded 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point respectively.

As per the UEFA website, the Ballon d'Or is awarded based on three main criteria – individual performances, decisive and impressive character, team performances and achievements, and class and fair play.

Lionel Messi won the 2023 edition of the Ballon d'Or. Image credit: Getty

France Football's editor-in-chief, Vincent Garcia, has been vocal in the past about voting.

In fact, he previously revealed that an Argentinian representative had been removed from the process after he voted for four of his compatriots – Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez, Julian Alvarez and Emiliano Martinez – in the top five.

Enrique Wolff, a former Real Madrid and River Plate defender who was capped 27 times for Argentina, was told he "lost objectivity" following his votes in the 2023 Ballon d'Or, which was won by Messi.

Speaking to The Times in 2024, Garcia opened up on the decision.

"I am not a dictator. They vote with their heart. Some prefer attackers or midfielders, this team or that team. The important thing is to be credible. Not everyone passes that test either," he said.

"Last year the voter for Argentina was removed after he selected four players from Argentina — Messi, Lautaro Martinez, Julian Alvarez and Emiliano Martinez — in his top five spots."

Messi won the Ballon d'Or for an eighth time. Image credit: Getty

Garcia added: "There were four Argentina players available on the shortlist and he picked all of them. My opinion was he had lost objectivity. We changed the journalist and he no longer votes."

Ballon d'Or was rocked after 'fake journalist who doesn't exist' was allowed to vote

Just days after the 2018 ceremony, which saw Luka Modric win the Ballon d'Or for the first time, it became known to the public that a ‘fake journalist’ was able to cast his votes.

Abdou Bonia, from the Comoros, was down as working for ‘albaladcomores.com’, but it turned out the site had been inactive for six years and no one named Abdou Bonia ever worked there.

Toimimou Abdo, who was a photographer for the newspaper when it still existed, told alwatan.net: “I'm surprised to see that the Albakad Comores exists. The newspaper has been closed for six years.”

The fake journalist voted for then-Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe as his no.1 pick, with Modric in second, Cristiano Ronaldo in third, Eden Hazard in fourth and finally Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in fifth.

Ultimately, the fake votes didn’t make much of an impact as Modric came out on top with 277 points.