Twitter Nigeria, other Social Media as well as the Country at large had a cool atmosphere filled with mixed feelings at the early hours of 9th January 2014, everyone was waiting earnestly to know who would be crowned the King of Football in Africa for the year 2013. The Social Media was abuzz as well as Sports Media with expectations that our brother Mikel deserved the award because of his feat last season with both the National Team and Chelsea Football Club. Those who believed Yaya our Ivory Coast neighbour would win it were not so vocal so as not to be seen as anti-Nigerian. Even during the Award Gala, Nigeria’s Social Media was still filled with tweets, posts and comments from Mikel optimists.
Although Nigeria won almost everything in sight at the CAF Awards, Nigerians were not relaxed and satisfied yet because to them, that wasn’t the greatest prize. Immediately the award everyone was waiting for was announced, twitter was filled with outbursts of emotions. Some supporting Yaya and claiming that he was better than Mikel, while the others said that Yaya won nothing that Mikel’s team even won his team before winning the African Cup of Nations. There were diverse schools of thoughts; some believe that it was football politics, they cited the case of Jay Jay Okocha and Samuel Eto’o in 2003 and 2004 awards; that Okocha was playing all the beautiful football while they said Eto’o was winning trophies but that in the case of Mikel and Yaya, Mikel who has won trophies both in Europe and Africa was ditched by CAF for Yaya who was playing better but won nothing. While the other school believed it was a case of pure brilliance from Yaya, they even argued that Yaya could make the best 20 in the World while Mikel won’t dare; a Nigerian even went to the extent of opining that it would’ve been a disgrace for Africa if Mikel had won. If you open up this issue today, many people will still give their views. But there’s a point most people are ignoring; not the politics but the voting factor. Yes, the voting factor.
The truth is that in football, anything is possible once voting is involved. When Okocha was brilliant (2003 and 2004), Eto’o won the two, why? Because they said he was winning trophies and Jay Jay wasn’t. Canavaro won in 2006 when his team won the World Cup, in 2010, Messi didn’t deserve to be on the podium (if the criteria used for Canavaro was used) because he didn’t play well at the World Cup and his team didn’t do well. For that 2010, the three that should’ve been on that Podium were – Sneijder, Iniesta and Xavi and it wouldn’t be debated if any of them had won it because they were brilliant at both Club level and their National teams, but the voters or should I say FIFA ignored Sneijder (he didn’t even make the podium) and gave the award to Messi because voting was involved. Messi is loved, admired and respected more than the other three, so once voting is involved, sentiments must come in, once voting is involved, the most loved, admired and respected will always get the votes same way Yaya got the votes over Mikel. Drogba had nothing to do in that three-man list, he couldn’t even make the Best Eleven but the love the voters had for him brought him there. Don’t be surprised if Messi wins this forth coming Balon D’or, it is very possible, and when it happens, I will join Gerard Pique in his proposed laugh.
There will always be some forms of bias once voting is the method for choosing the best players. With voting in football, the term “World Best” is relative, just authentic because it comes from the highest footballing body, but the fact still remains that they have no hand in the decision making. If sentiments are to be removed and if the award for the best player should actually go to the best players, then the stats in all competitions should be used instead of the trophies, the goals or even the votes. The likes of Opta, Castrol and other known stat bodies (I believe FIFA and UEFA have theirs too) should be involved. When the stats are used, the player that won the European Player of the Year cannot lose the World Player of the same year to another player from Europe as it happened last year and may happen again this year. With stats, the best player in the World would be the same and would be the one scooping every award both from Media Houses and every other Sporting body. With stats as the rule, the first African player in the World ranking will automatically be the African Player of the year and the first eleven players from the necessary positions will make the First Eleven. With that, the Best Three players on the Podium must be in the First Eleven and not what happened at the CAF Awards.
To show you how bias the voting system can be, if the Captains of National teams are to vote, notwithstanding the number of Goals Yaya might have scored or how well he might have played, the Nigerian Coach and Captain will never vote for him over Mikel same way his Coach and Captain won’t vote Mikel over him even if Mikel scored every Goal Chelsea got and single handedly won everything for them last season. If the stats system is in place, Cristiano Ronaldo’s camp couldn’t have found grounds to accuse FIFA of double standards when the FIFA President Sepp Blatter mimicked Cristiano and chose Messi as his favourite. If the stats system is adopted, the following instances should have little or nothing to contribute to the race for the best player in the World or Europe.
– Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick against Sweden to qualify for the World Cup,
– Lionel Messi scoring five goals in just a single game,
– Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring four in a game
– Franck Ribery’s team winning in every competition
– Luiz Suarez scoring more than every player but biting Ivanovic
– And so many other instances.
The stat would have to include every game of the season involving every player. With the stats, the Mid-fielders, Defenders and Goalkeepers would have the same chance as the forwards to win these awards. Most times, who the fans see as the Man of the Match in a game may end up not winning it because stats were involved.
If the Football Associations keep using the voting process, there will always be bias, confusion and endless debates. But it seems these controversies are what makes football interesting. It seems the debates make the game worth watching and it seems these make more money and arguably make the game more dynamic. If that is the case, the voting system should continue but if the Best Player should be the ‘Undisputed Best Player’ and not a ‘relative Best Player’, then they should be chosen not by sentiments/votes but by statistics, which don’t lie, the voting system should be quashed.
@Elexharry Elekwa O. Elekwa
Views expressed are those of the writer and not necessary that of Omojuwa.com nor its associates
