FIFA have officially responded to claims that the voting process for the Best Men's Player award was rigged.
Read: 'I Didn't Vote For Messi' – FIFA Awards Rigged?
After Lionel Messi was named the best player in the world for a sixth time in his career on Monday, Nicaragua captain Juan Barrera revealed the next day that he did not vote for Messi or any other player as he did not participate this year.
Italian publication Tuttosport also reported that Sudan Coach Zdravko Lugarosic did not vote for the Argentine, with the report claiming he voted for Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Kylian Mbappé, not Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane as shown in the list by FIFA.
FIFA released a statement on Friday evening claiming they will investigate any acts of wrong-doing in their voting process.
The statement read: FIFA has been disappointed to see a number of reports in the media questioning the integrity of the voting process for The Best FIFA Football Awards™.
These reports are unfair and misleading. The voting procedure for each of the awards is supervised and monitored by an independent observer, in this case PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland. FIFA and PwC follow the Rules of Allocation and relevant standard control procedures. As per these procedures, FIFA requested all member associations to submit their voting forms both electronically and in writing. The written documents must also be signed by the responsible persons of the association as well as by the persons authorised to vote. Therefore in order for a vote to be valid it must include the respective signatures and the member association's stamp. Both FIFA and the independent observer can demonstrate that all the votes submitted in accordance with the rules and within the deadlines were taken into account. Consequently, there is no doubt whatsoever as to the authenticity of the result. Should there have been any case of wrong-doing, and even if this did not affect the result of the vote, FIFA will investigate and apply sanctions where necessary.Read: Update In FIFA Vote-Rigging Storm Over Messi Win
