2020 Ballon D’or Cancelled Due To Coronavirus
France Football, organisers of the prestigious Ballon D’or awards, have announced a cancellation of this year’s honours due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Football’s most prestigious individual prize has been awarded every year since 1956, with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi claiming the honour the most times with six triumphs while Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo follows closely with five.
A female version was launched in 2018, with Norway’s Ada Hegerberg winning the inaugural version and USA’s Megan Rapinoe triumphing last year.
The coronavirus pandemic disrupted football around the world earlier this year as most leagues were put on hold from March and only bounced back last month.
Some European leagues like the French Ligue 1, Dutch Eredivisie, Belgium Jupiler League and Scottish Premiership failed to resume entirely while international tournaments originally scheduled for this summer have had to be rescheduled.
"As the organiser of the Ballon d'Or, the Group L'Equipe, to which France Football belongs, decided not to award the most prestigious individual trophy there is in 2020," a statement said.
Pascal Ferré, editor-in-chief of France Football, added: "For the first time since 1956, the Ballon d'Or will take a break.
"There will be no edition in 2020, because it turns out, after thoughtful consideration, that all the conditions are not met.
"We believe that such a singular year cannot - and should not - be treated as an ordinary one.
"From a sports perspective, two months (January and February), out of the 11 generally required to form an opinion and decide who should lift the trophies, represent far too little to gauge and judge, without forgetting that the other games were played - or will be played - in unordinary conditions (behind closed doors, with five replacements, Champions League played in a single game)."
"Finally, the equity that prevails for this honorary title will not be warranted, especially when it comes to accounting and preparation."
"All the award seekers will not be in the same boat, some having seen their season cut short. Therefore, how can we establish a fair comparison? To avoid overly convoluted calculations and projections, we chose the least bad of the options.
"This decision, which was taken of course with all the Group stakeholders, does not delight us but it seems to be the most responsible one."
