10 July,2010 11:54 PM IST | | Carlos Monteiro
FIFA's novel step in asking Internet audiences to pick its man-of-the-match award winner at the WC has drawn flak from football experts.
"FIFA has to seriously look at reviewing their decision to leave the voting entirely to the fans," said respected South African football writer Nkareng Matshe. He has urged FIFA to go back to the old system, where a technical team comprising ex-players and coaches would pick the man of the match.
"For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, the Man of the Match award for each match will be chosen by you, the fans!" announced the world game's governing body just before South Africa 2010 kicked off.
Fans have been SMSing their vote via mobile phones or posting it directly on the FIFA website. Voting opens from the start of the second half of each game.
That enables spectators seated in the stadium as well as millions around the world watching from homes or bars to pick their 'man of the match.'
Matshe has strung together several examples of the awards going to player based on popularity rather than performance. A prime example was Cristiano Ronaldo, who had a lukewarm tournament but ended up winning the little Budweiser trophy in all three of Portugal's group matches, obviously due to his legion of fans.
Luckily, some sanity has prevailed in the semi-finals with genuine match-winners taking the awards ufffd Xavi for the Spain-Germany match, and Wesley Sneijder for the Dutch win over Uruguay.
Different strokes
It doesn't help matters that FIFA adopts different selection methods for each top award.
Take for instance the Golden Ball, the coveted trophy awarded to the tournament's best player.
Top scorers David Villa for Spain and Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), of course, the key contenders and the award invariably goes to a player from the all-important final decider.
FIFA's Technical Study Group nominates 10 players, and all accredited media at the World Cup then vote for their choice. Weirdly, the journalists' votes had to be submitted before half-time of the final, so they could be tallied and the winners of the gold, silver and bronze balls declared just after full time.
French wizard Zinedine Zidane won the Golden Ball at the last World Cup in 2006 despite his infamous headbutt on Italy's Marco Materazzi in the second half of the final, causing FIFA a fair degree of embarrassment.
Several of us in the media boxes voted for Zidane based on his outstanding first-half performance, which preceded the shameful incident later in the game (when voting had already closed).
Learning a lesson from that debacle in Germany, FIFA revealed today that it will wait for Golden Ball votes from the football press corps until the final whistle in Soccer City.
Meanwhile, World Cup's Best Young Player award, which has three nominees, is decided totally by the FIFA technical committee.
Lukas Podolski of Germany was the winner of the inaugural award four years ago. His compatriot Thomas Mueller, Andre Ayew of Ghana and Giovani Dos Santos of Mexico are in the running this year.
