Ballon D'or farce & UEFA's double standards!

Iker Casillas does not create the same impact based on stats as a Messi, Iniesta or Ronaldo does, but he has an immense influence on any team he plays for!

Once again a farcical UEFA denies the player who deserves its so called ‘European player of the year’ the reason being ‘A Barcelona player deserves it more even if it is not Lionel Messi. If it’s done on a voting result, how do the voters justify such double standards and a clear lack of benchmark to decide the Ballon D’or?

Andres Iniesta was handed the Ballon D’or with 18 votes surpassing Lionel Messi’s and Cristiano Ronaldo‘s 17 votes. The justification for Iniesta’s not so landslide like victory was, ‘He was an exceptional performer in the year gone by culminating in another Euro 2012 triumph for Spain.

If we take into account the little Spaniard’s so called exceptional performance then we also need to come down to how it was judged, what was the benchmark? As in the previous two years when Lionel Messi lifted the award the reasons were quite simple and visible on the stat sheets, add to that Champion’s League trophy, La Liga triumph and yes it was quite justified.

Andres Iniesta’s last year stats may show his national team lifting the Euro trophy but he did not do much for Barcelona. To top that, he made a total of 47 appearances and scored just a paltry figure of 8 goals being an attacking midfielder for his club in all competitions. In the Euros, Iniesta’s presence was important for Spain but after a series of dribbles, stepovers, nutmegs leaving defenses for dead and end result in 6 games was just 1 assist! If that was his Euro impact that helped Spain lift the trophy then what wrong did David Silva do in comparison?

Lets just look into David Silva’s stats on the year gone by: 49 games for Manchester City with 8 goals and 22 assists in all competitions with City lifting the Barclays Premier League Trophy. In the Euro’s Silva had more impact on Spain’s fortunes as well in comparison to Iniesta’s Euro statistics.

So clearly if Euro 2012 victory for Spain was the benchmark for recognizing Andres Iniesta’s performance for the Ballon D’or then there are certainly other players who have had more impact on Spain’s fortunes and on other national teams who do not even boast of the same quality of players on and off the bench as Spain does.

Let’s just look into a certain Andrea Pirlo’s stats from the Euro’s, where he was a talisman for his Italian team at the age of 33. He also won the Italian Serie A with Juventus raking up some so called “Performance” stats for his club – 13 assists, 3 goals and the most successful pass completion rate in the Serie A. But no, UEFA decides to overlook him because his Italy could not beat Spain in the finals. So clearly, ambiguous factors like impact or player presence cannot be the benchmark for getting the Ballon D’or. He led a team that was broken by scandals to the Euro finals, doesn’t that count for something, Mr. Platini and the so called journalists who vote?

So let’s just go back to what the ‘Benchmark’ is for winning the Ballon D’or or European Player of the Year award.

We have seen that factors like influence, player presence, etc, can be very ambiguous and hard to prove without statistics – which is why Messi won the Ballon D’or in 2010 when actually Iniesta should have won as he definitely made more of an impact during the 2008 Euros, the Fifa World Cup 2010 and the stat sheets can prove that for a fact! Also, he won major trophies with Barcelona and him and Xavi put together created more chances for the diminutive Argentine than vice-versa. But UEFA chose to reward Lionel Messi. When it came to Messi,  ‘stats’ were everything, which can only be matched by one player in the La Liga, but sadly in 2010 and 2011, Real Madrid was highly overshadowed in terms of winning anything significant.

Cristiano Ronaldo: 60 goals in 55 appearances last season in all competitions for Real Madrid with the La Liga trophy in the cabinet. For a team like Portugal which do not boast of as many superstars like La Furia Roja, Cristiano starred in Euro 2012. His team didn’t go far, but he did rake up the impact points on the stat sheets through his impeccable performance.

The Portuguese clearly deserved it this year, he’s shown that he can make difference to teams that do not boast of a Xavi or Iniesta to back a superstar like Messi. He had shone with Manchester United and has clearly now proven himself in two of the World’s best football leagues with equal elan, that is one stat that Lionel Messi cannot show on his CV. But still he remains overlooked; performance stats, impact to his club and country, influence in a tough game like beating FC Barcelona in the Super Copa and an obvious superstar presence. Nothing swayed the votes in his favour. What is the benchmark then?

Let me hazard a guess, FC Barcelona? If it is not Messi then give it to Andres Iniesta or a Xavi for that matter but no one else. Don’t give it to Ronaldo if you don’t want to, just for argument’s sake lets just say he’s not a great impact player and Portugal didn’t accomplish much. Then what about Andrea Pirlo or David Silva for that matter? If neither of the players sound good enough, then let’s bring up someone who has clearly had as much influence as possible on the Spanish national team and has also been a stalwart for Real Madrid - Iker Casillas, why wasn’t he recognized?

UEFA, Michel Platini and Football journalists, you lot clearly have double standards and hence the Balon D’or is nothing more than a piece of metal and a complete farce!