Bias against British players in the Ballon d'Or

17 January 2015 09:45

The FIFA Ballon d'Or is an award given each year by FIFA to the male player considered to have performed the best in the previous calendar year. The award commenced in 2010 after France Football's Ballon d'Or and the men's FIFA World Player of the Year award were merged.

Before the merger the Ballon d'Or (French for Golden ball) was often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year award and was supposedly bestowed on the player that performed the best over the previous year.

Football journalists voted for European players at European clubs and the player with the most votes won the award. The award was conceived by France Football's chief magazine writer Gabriel Hanot in 1956. He asked other journalists to vote for the player of the year in Europe, which, surprisingly, was Blackpool’s 41 year old Stanley Matthews.

Winning the European Cup was seen as a major factor for players winning the awards. Looking at the lists of winners in the 1960’s it would be hard to argue that there was any bias towards British players. With the likes of Denis Law (1964), Bobby Charlton (1966), and George Best (1968) all voted best player in Europe.

Despite these British winners in the 60’s, it is surprising that after Celtics terrific season of 1966-67, where they won the Scottish league, scoring 111 goals in 34 games, the Scottish cup conceding only 3 goals, the Scottish league cup and more importantly the European cup beating Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon, losing one match on their way to victory, that one of their players did not pick up the award.

To be honest it is an absolute travesty really that the award went to Florian Albert of Hungarian side Ferencvaros. Glasgow Celtic won every competition they entered that season and beat Man United 4-1 and Real Madrid (away) 1-0 in friendlies. There can be no other reason than bias, maybe because the Scottish league was not so glamorous.

As football moved into the 70’s it was understandable that Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer should pick up numerous awards. Both of their club sides winning the European cup three years on the bounce and competing in 1974 world cup final.

If dominating in Europe is the factor that won a journalists vote in 70’s and 80’s then surely Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish should have won it on a couple of occasions. I can see no reason why it should have gone to Oleg Blokhin in 1975 other than Dynamo Kiev’s victory in the Cup winner’s cup. The soviet league was by no means one of Europe’s strongest by a long stretch.

Looking back over the record books as I write this article it is even more of a farce than I remembered. Okay England’s Kevin Keegan picked up the award two years on the trot, in 1978 and 1979, but he was plying his trade in Germany with SV Hamburg. Why was he not given the award in 1977 with Liverpool after they just missed out on a treble by losing to rivals Man United in the Fa cup final? It has to be bias against the English league.

Maybe the rotten curse of hooliganism had forced European football journalists to ignore British football. But the fact that Keegan won the crown in 1978 and Dalglish was not in the top three is astonishing. Dalglish scored Liverpool's sixth goal when they beat Keegan's Hamburg 6–0 in the second leg of the 1977 UEFA Super Cup final. By the end of his first season with Liverpool, Dalglish had played 62 times and scored 31 goals, including the winning goal in the 1978 European cup final at Wembley against Bruges. Surely with Argentina winning the World cup that year and only European players allowed to win the award, there is no plausible reason Dalglish did not win it.

It seems that the voting journalists have a preferential league every now and then. Bundesliga player’s took home the award in 1970, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981 despite the European cup going to English clubs six years in a row during the same period almost. It is a total debacle.

Italy’s Serie A became the next fashionable league with players winning awards in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998. With Platini winning it three years in succession in the early 80’s, he was clearly a great player and captained France to Euro 84. But should he really have won it three times and Dalglish none? Or Keegan twice?

Bob Paisley managed Keegan and Dalglish at Liverpool. He said of Dalglish "His genius is not only in his own ability but in making others play". Paisley also called him the greatest player he had ever worked with. Dalglish not winning a Ballon d’Or is a sporting scandal, a player winning ten league titles, six national cups and three European cups, it can be called nothing else. Maybe if Keegan had been playing for Liverpool and Dalglish for Hamburg, perhaps it would have been different.

There has to be bias against English teams in the voting. After George Best won the crown in 1968, no player representing an English team had claimed the award until Michael Owen in 2001. Cristiano Ronaldo won it in 2008. Why didn’t Henry win it? Or Bergkamp? Cantona? The list is endless.

Since 2010 and the merger the voting has changed, with national team coaches and captains also voting. It has been dominated by the Spanish league since re-branding. However, most would say the decisions have been spot on considering the winners have been Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Maybe we have to wait till one of those two players come over to British shores, or maybe the Premier league will be justly looked at regarding its players.

Even if we don’t have a British player winning it, someone representing a British club would do me fine. If there is no bias, then on average at least every 3 or 4 years a player from the Premier league, one of Europe’s elite leagues, should pick up the crown. Come on coaches and journalists, prove my suspicious mind wrong and let Aguero take the award home next year. Preferably whilst at Man city and not Real Madrid. Or better still Rooney. If the powers that be in our beloved game are trying to truly genuine about promoting fairness, then let us see it in the Ballon d’Or.

Source: DSG