How Football's Biggest Awards Became Meaningless

whether it's kevin de bruyne or winning the pfa player of the year award or george honeyman being shortlisted for the league one player of the year award there is a stock answer within the world of football when it comes to individual accolades it goes something a little bit like this sure it's great to get that kind of recognition but ultimately it is a team sport and there are 20 to 25 lads in that dressing room who've all played their part in what we've achieved this season the odd player most notably cristiano ronaldo in recent years may buck that trend but by and large that is the answer that you will get and unlike so many of football's tedious cliches that one is actually true football is a team sport in which no man is in ireland and no trophy has ever been won solely by an individual no not cruyff in 72 not matthews in 53 and not even diego maradona in 1986. that hasn't stopped us from trying to pick out individuals for recognition though just to be clear when i say that football's awards have become meaningless it is individual awards that i'm referring to not team trophies clearly the champions league or the world cup are not meaningless similarly awards like the golden glove or golden boot are not meaningless they typically tend to do what they say on the tin recognizing the player with the most goals and the goalkeeper with the most clean sheets it doesn't necessarily mean that you're the best goalkeeper or the best forward but nor is it meaningless since it merely recognizes exactly what the award claims to recognize no in today's video i'm referring solely to the world of football's many subjective individual honours based upon performance and i say many because there really are a great many of them now there is the ballon d'or which was briefly the fifa ballon d'or there is the fifa the best men's player award which splintered from the fifa ballon d'or and was previously the fifa world player of the year award there is the uefa men's player of the year award the golden boy award and my personal favorite the globe soccer best player of the year award now those are just a few of the global or at least european-wide awards of course there are many other individual accolades in different leagues countries and continents these include the fwa football of the year award in england first awarded in 1948 which i believe is the oldest of its kind at least as far as i can tell the ballon d'or is the oldest and indeed is still widely recognized as the most prestigious of all the international individual awards though so we'll start with that one the first question it is worth asking ourselves is what does the ballon d'or actually attempt to determine easy you might think the best male footballer over a period of a calendar well yes and no the ballon d'or was the brainchild of gabriel anno who also pioneered the creation of france's first nationwide top flight now known as lee gunn and of the european cup which we now know as the champions league so a busy guy evidently and a giant in the history of the european game anno was himself a french international fullback but he was forced to retire from football aged only 29 after he was injured in a plane crash he subsequently went into journalism first for the keep and then for france football who were both owned by the same company when the ballon d'or was first awarded to a 41 year old stanley matthews in 1956 journalists from france football drafted the awards shortlist picked out the winner and awarded the trophy completely independently this is how the ballon d'or initially functioned but over the years whilst france football maintained their administrative powers over the award the voting process became a little bit more democratic even today france football still draft the 30-man shortlist on their own but the winner from those candidates is now voted on by journalists national team managers and national team captains from all the way across the globe though crucially only by one journalist one captain and one manager from each nation contrary to what you might think the criteria isn't as simple as who played the best over the last 12 months even if that is the premise upon which some voters make their decision based upon and what most observers take the award to me ballon d'or voting actually has three criteria listed by france football as follows number one individual and collective performances in brackets winners during the year number two player class in brackets talent and fair play and brackets and number three players career yeah um each voter then selects their top five players ordered from first to fifth with one point awarded for finishing fifth two points for fourth three points for third four points per second and then six points fourth first with three representatives from 176 different nations there are 7 920 points up for grabs in total at least at the last count thanks for the history lesson alfie but where are you actually going with this you could be forgiven for thinking well you see you might think sure the three-point criteria that you just read out seems a bit odd and rather ambiguous but at the end of the day everyone just picks from first to fifth who they think were the best players in the world each year right right again not quite let's just take a quick look at the voting records of the two most successful players in the history of the ballon d'or as the captains of portugal and argentina lionel messi and cristiano ronaldo get to participate in ballon d'or voting the only criteria being that they cannot vote for themselves the same rule applies to all of the national team captains during his 9 years of voting 22 of lionel messi's 27 votes have gone to teammates of his at either club or international level across ronaldo's eight years of voting 18 of his 24 votes have also gone to either his real madrid or portugal comrades i think we can all agree that whilst it's pretty reasonable to expect footballers to have a greater appreciation of players that they train and play alongside on a weekly or at least regular basis there is no way lionel messi and cristiano ronaldo actually think that their teammates are the three best players in the world virtually every year what's more and perhaps most tellingly of all lionel messi has only ever twice voted for cristiano ronaldo at all and ronaldo hasn't once voted for messi is anyone seriously going to suggest that lionel messi didn't think cristiano ronaldo was among the three best players in the world in say 2012 2013 and 2015 that ronaldo who has repeatedly referred to messi as the player he has been battling with for supremacy over the last 15 years and the player who drives him on the most does anyone really believe that he doesn't think lionel messi has been among the top three players in the world once over the last decade seriously now you may say well fine the two greatest players of this generation have voted either tactically or with their hearts rather than with their heads since this format was introduced we know how competitive particularly ronaldo is when it comes to individual awards but so what they're just two votes among several hundreds what does it really matter except the point being they aren't just two among hundreds this is exactly how ballon d'or voting works virtually across the board i just picked out those two as the most high profile examples players managers and even journalists vote in cliques for friends colleagues or just with a domestic player buyers often with almost a total disregard for actual performances that year it's a bit like the eurovision song contest no seriously i'm not joking hear me out people cast votes for a variety of reasons often based more on whether they like the personal group and the nation they are representing rather than indiscernible musical talent that is why the likes of ireland sweden and the netherlands are such frequent winners or take the example of the uk who were historically quite successful at eurovision but didn't receive a single point a eurovision in 2003 after the announcement that the uk would invade iraq later that month alongside the united states a fairly unpopular decision on the continent the uk has basically done dreadfully ever since the invasion of iraq finishing dead last on four occasions i won't go too far down this eurovision rabbit hole but hopefully the parallels are easy enough to understand what's more though even among those who don't vote solely based upon friendships and politics and i'm talking about the ballon d'or again now not eurovision there are some truly bizarre votes let's take 2012 as perhaps the most obvious example since that was the year in which lionel messi scored a record-breaking 91 goals and made 29 assists giving him a combine total of 120 goal contributions in only 69 games which is just laughably brilliant most reasonable people would say that picking the best player in world football in 2012 then was fairly straightforward messi wasn't a world of his own so surely everyone recognized that fact when casting their votes for the 2012 ballon d'or ah well i'm afraid not france captain hugo laurisse was among a number of voters who didn't even put messi among their top three as it was at the time before the introduction of the first or fifth system instead the tottenham number one opted to vote for ekecs in top spot followed by radamel falcao and didier dropper of course drogba played a decisive role in chelsea's champions league glory against bayern munich in 2012 with an iconic performance in the final but he also scored five goals in 24 premier league games for chelsea in the 2011-12 season and he spent the second half of 2012 playing in china a legend of the game no doubt but even the most ardent of chelsea fans would admit that didier drogba wasn't better than lionel messi in 2012. lloris wasn't alone though germany boss jokim lev portugal captain bruno alves and spanish duo ike casius and vicente del bosque all failed to find room for lionel messi among their top threes during a year in which the argentine and i must repeat this scored 91 goals that ought to have been sufficient ground for an investigation into crack cocaine abuse within the world of football but alas that is just the way ballon d'or voting works or perhaps more accurately doesn't work i'm just giving you the examples of big name players and managers as well if you venture further afield to some slightly more obscure names you'll find even more bizarre voting patterns just take the former manager of the pakistan national team muhammad al-shamlan who in 2015 put iron robin in top spot on his vote card for what was then the fifa ballon d'or despite the fact that the dutchman had been injured for the vast majority of 2015 with repeated muscle tests or how about sri lankan sports journalist hafiz meraka of the daily news newspaper who in 2019 overlooked the ballon d'or frontrunners of lionel messi virgil van dijk cristiano ronaldo mohamed salah and sadio mane entirely from his five votes in favor of naming trent alexander arnold as the best player in world football that year during the same year cameroonian journalist gustav samnik gave his five votes to virgil mandik mohamed salah sadio mane alison becker and trent alexander arnold meanwhile bhutan esports reporter passan norbu lends his votes to sadio mane virgil van dijk mohamed salah alison becker and roberto firmino leading some to suggest that maybe it might just have been a slight possibility that both men were liverpool fans i could list hundreds of such examples including roy hodgson who left messi and ronaldo out of his top three and picked out javier mascherano as the best player in the world in 2014 but i won't bore you with that and hopefully i've already made my point now across the board the sheer number of votes tends to iron out some of this lunacy diplomacy and nepotism resulting in fairly reasonable podiums and winners but the results are still widely distorted by individual competitions the champions league and the major international tournaments have such disproportionate waiting that a player could have a rubbish season but pull out four or five decent performances in a cup winning team and finish way ahead of someone who is outstanding week in week out all season but plays for a team that didn't win anything outside of the domestic competitions just take 2018 when luka modric broke messi and ronaldo's duopoly over the ballon d'or that had existed since 2008. now i adore luka modric and i think he is an absolutely world-class sensation of a footballer however had real madrid not won the champions league in 2018 or had croatia not enjoyed such a fantastic run to the final of the 2018 world cup it's possible that he wouldn't even have been nominated for the 2018 ballon d'or let alone have won the award modric ended up winning an absolute landslide with 753 points meanwhile lionel messi came fifth with 280 points messi was sublime in 2018 but despite winning la liga barcelona only reached the quarterfinals at the champions league that season and argentina disappointed at the world cup finals in russia so he finished fifth no one who watched football in 2018 and has even a vague understanding of the sport would suggest that messi was only the fifth best player on the planet in 2018 but all four of the players who finished above him won either the champions league or the world cup which often tends to be what really matters i also think that luka modric won the ballon d'or by such a landslide due to something of a messy ronaldo fatigue whereby people just wanted to see someone different get their hands on the award but that is an altogether separate issue this leads us nicely into some of the other individual awards in football whether it be the fifa the best awards or the uefa men's player of the year award the ue for men's player of the year award is very similar to the ballon d'or in terms of its format just with a european slant with one journalist and national team bosses of each of the uefa affiliated nations allowed to vote naturally this leads to the same partisanship that we see in the ballon d'or voting process just with even more of a european slant and with even more emphasis on the european championships and the champions league so since its inception in 2010-11 8 out of the 10 winners of the award have been european with the only exception being leonold messi in both 2011 and 2015. in nine out of the ten years that the award has been running the winner has played for the team that won the champions league that season the sole exception andres iniesta in 2012 won that summer's european championships it is pretty clear to see what the award prioritizes and it isn't solely how well players have played as it is supposed to be the fifa the best awards split their vote four ways with journalists national team bosses and national team captains just like the ballon d'or but also with fans each of whom have a 25 say on the outcome of each of their awards this added fan element which is open to everyone adds an extra layer of unpredictability since hordes of fans can swing awards in certain directions the 2018 pushcash award is perhaps the most glaring example of this when egypt's famously passionate and engaged online support base clinched the award for muhammad salla's goal against liverpool's merseyside rivals everton despite the fact that the goal in question wasn't even salah's best that year it didn't win the premier league goal of the month award that month let alone the division's goal of the season so it was quite clearly not the best goal scored in all of world football that year as dubious as all of these awards may now seem given everything that i've just said about them they are all bastions of fairness democracy and sensibility in comparison to the downright hilarious farce of an award ceremony that is the globe soccer awards or the dubai doors as they are sometimes referred to have been held in dubai in association with the dubai sports council every year since their inception in 2010. in that first year 2010 there weren't actually any player awards at the globe soccer awards it seemed to be more of a ceremony to recognize commercial and administrative work the money men shall we say rather than the footballers there were just three awards the best agents of the year the best director of the year and the special career award the recipients of the three awards were portuguese super agent george mendes atletico madrid's ceo and majority shareholder angel hill marine and adriano galiani also known as silvio berlusconi's right-hand man then of ac milan and now of syria b outfit monza the next year though in 2011 the number of awards on offer doubled to six now there was a player of the year award a club of the year award both a player and a director's career recognition award and an award for the greatest media attraction in football cristiano ronaldo won both the player of the year award and the greatest media attraction in football awards meanwhile mendes scooped at the agent of the year award yet again by 2014 the number of awards had doubled yet again up to 12 and in 2019 there were a whopping 16 trophies handed out at the ceremony with awards ranging from the best arab club to the best partnership of the year by a sport business on each occasion though there was one constant george mendes won the agents of the year award anyone who has ever seen the globe soccer awards most likely on social media by cristiano ronaldo sharing them with his 500 million followers on social media may have noticed how well george mendes and his clients seem to fare in these awards in dubai in fact in the 11 years that the globe soccer awards have now been running george mendes has been named as agent of the year 10 times the only exception being a victory for mina raiola in 2016 when he brokered paul pogba's move to manchester united on the player front mendez's most famous client cristiano ronaldo leads the way with six successes compared to just one for his primary ballon d'or rival lionel messi that must have been 2012. i hear you say oh no the winner in 2012 was neither messi nor ronaldo it was actually radamel falcao lo and behold another of george mendez's clients what's more certain awards just seem to come and go only returning during years in which a george mendes client seems to be a reasonable winner take the best revelation award first awarded in 2014 to mendez is emerging star james rodriguez who had just lit up the 2014 world cup and then well the award just disappeared there was no best revelation award at the globe soccer awards in 2015 2016 2017 or 2018 but then in 2019 the reward mysteriously resurfaced this time going to you guessed it and other george mendes client joel felix and then it disappeared again in 2020. or how about the fans player of the year which has only been awarded on three occasions firstly in 2013 and 2014 then there was a four-year break before it returned in 2018. the winner on all three occasions was cristiano ronaldo it sure seems like one hell of a coincidence but hey cristiano ronaldo is very good at football and i'm sure george mendes is very good at being an agent so move along now there's nothing to see here uh well i suppose just out of idle curiosity let's check out the criteria and voting process for the globe soccer awards just for comparison the criteria well they don't seem to share the criteria they just say that the awards aim to recognize not just the best players and coaches but also the people who work behind the scenes and who had not previously been acknowledged and by that of course they mean george mendes now come on alfie don't be so cynical right what about the judges who gets to vote journalists from across the globe international captains and managers uh not quite so 2020 was the first year where the globe soccer awards shed any details regarding the decision-making process when it came to the awards with a jury as they called it slightly menacingly but i guess that fits the location of 29 people ranging from roma legend francesco tottie to someone called muhammad al kamali who appears to just be a random lawyer from the united arab emirates still these so-called jorahs who thankfully didn't decide that anyone should be stoned to death only actually got to select the nominees who got to decide the winners from those nominees appears to be quite opaque the globe soccer awards official website claims that fans were consulted for the first time in 2020 as well but how and in what capacity they do not divulge alright so we don't know what the criteria is or who actually gets to pick the winners but can we at least establish who runs the organization well it was founded by george mendes hang on what was that yeah no it was founded by george mendes the globe soccer awards agents of the century he started it but if you're thinking that may explain why george mendes has won so many awards along with you know all of his clients then fear not because the awards were actually bought by a new company in 2017. that's right not crying corruption anymore are you so who bought it well i'm not sure why that's important but since you asked it was a london-based investment company called silver international investments you might find it interesting to know that silver international investments was founded by a man named ricardo silva who is also a business associate of george magnus's in fact silver international investments is actually a majority shareholder of george mendes's talent agency just a few so they own most of george mendes business they bought an awards ceremony off george mendes in which george mendes has been named agents of the year 10 times in 11 years and george mendes's clients win almost every other award i mean quite frankly the whole thing is pretty hilarious and you have to admire the sheer brass neck of the man it would be like me creating a youtube awards ceremony and aiming myself as the best youtuber of the year every year before selling the ceremony to my boss whilst still winning the award every year meanwhile michael and james at hrtc sport get to share the best youtuber that is an hrtc7s award every other year to be honest if i was cristiano ronaldo i would be a bit embarrassed he is a genuine all-time great within the sport of football he has won the actual ballon d'or five times it's not like this is nicholas bentner setting up a stupid ceremony in his own house so that he can finally win something this is cristiano sodding ronaldo degrading and humiliating himself to collect some corrupt pointless award that no one cares about for the sake of some grubby emirati cash you earn literally a million pounds a week you don't have to debase yourself in dubai for a few extra quid i would laugh this whole thing off and it is quite funny if it didn't tell you quite so much about the seediness of football and the rank falseness and corruption that runs right through the heart of the sport this is an awards ceremony so clearly rigged and corrupt to anyone who does even a modicum of research that is still attended by gianni infantino the president of fifa an organization that is supposed to be governing the most popular sport on the planet the globe soccer awards take place at the burj khalifa in dubai the tallest building in the world the ceremony is presented by tick tock apparently it is powered by audi whatever that means and here's me thinking that it's powered by emirati cash turns out it's actually powered by the one liter three cylinder petrol engine from an audi a3 it is a huge glitzy ceremony where the actual faces of george mendes and cristiano ronaldo light up the entire burj khalifa other sponsors include the likes of lavazza armani and sea palace resorts in dubai just in case you needed some extra companies to boycott perhaps my favorite thing about the globe soccer awards aside from the sheer audacity of it is the quote from lionel messi on the website's homepage which reads like a quote from a hostage with a revolver pressed against their forehead and george mendes shouting say that you're happy to be in dubai and proud to have won a token award otherwise i promise i'll fire this thing and the rest of your family will be next on that note i think i'm done this video is one i've wanted to make for a while it took me ages to make when i finally did it and i suspect not that many people will watch it a bit like the globe soccer awards i suppose i wanted to do a half decent job of it though since i think it's a worthy subject that hasn't been very well covered in much of the press so yeah individual awards in football are basically all stupid but not come remotely close to the stupidity and flagrant disregard for decency that is the globe soccer awards i shall end with my own awards ceremony the globe youtube awards i have consulted a jury regarding the nominees who wish to remain anonymous you don't need to know who made the final decision or how i promise you that's not important the award for the best youtube channel goes to drumroll please hri cc7 the best finance channel goes to the reluctance investor best youtuber of the century goes to a certain alfie potshama the best boss goes to well my boss vic the award for the most egotistical shameless maniacs who would sell their souls for 50 quid is a tie this year between george mendes and cristiano ronaldo and finally the award for the only awards ceremony that is more pointless than this one goes to the globe soccer awards congratulations mr mendes another one to add to the collection thank you all as ever for watching hit the like button if you enjoyed today's video i hope you enjoyed this ceremony as well let me know your thoughts down below in the comments and make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications for hitch sevens you could also find me on twitter or instagram by the username at hrtc7s for more content from the man who is now officially the greatest youtuber in the world as chosen by the globe youtube awards

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 291,298

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Awards, Ballon d'Or, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Documentary, Rant, Premier League, Award, Honour, Trophy, Globe Soccer Awards, Dubai, Messi, Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, HITC Sport, Champions League, FIFA, UEFA

Id: u_-4rS1Oo4g

Length: 28min 26sec (1706 seconds)

Published: Tue May 04 2021