France Football announce Ballon d’Or rule changes

There will be no chance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo winning another FIFA Ballon d’Or, as France Football have officially announced major rule changes to the award.

The French publication, which owns the rights to the Ballon d’Or, recently ended their relationship with FIFA, meaning that the ‘FIFA Ballon d’Or’ will no longer be an accolade - instead, it will just be called the Ballon d’Or.

The original Ballon d’Or award was created in 1956, while the FIFA Ballon d’Or was founded in 2010.

The FIFA Ballon d’Or nominees were voted for by players and coaches, but with France Football taking complete ownership of the award again, only select international journalists will be allowed to vote.

The media representatives will be allowed to vote for their best player from a pool of 30 nominated footballers, and there will reportedly be no announcement of three finalists before the award is presented to the winner.

The winner and the complete rankings will be revealed before the end of the year.

Messi won four FIFA Ballons d’Or, while Ronaldo won the prize twice. However, Messi won the FIFA World Player of the Year once before the format changed, as did Ronaldo.