FIFA issued a statement on Friday denying all the allegations and reports about the integrity of the voting process for The Best FIFA Football Awards.
Fifa asserted that all these allegations and reports are "unfair and misleading." Messi won the FIFA Best Men’s Player award for 2019, defeating Liverpool and Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk and fierce rival Cristiano Ronaldo to win the iconic award.
Football's world governing body stressed that the voting process was made under the supervision of an independent observer.
"The voting procedure for each of the awards is supervised and monitored by an independent observer, in this case, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland," the statement read according to the Fifa's official website.
The statement also added that Fifa had asked all federations to present their voting forms both as hard copies and electronically.
"FIFA requested all member associations to submit their voting forms both electronically and in writing," the statement explained.
"The written documents must also be signed by the responsible persons of the association as well as by the persons authorized to vote," it remarked.
Liverpool's head coach Jurgen Klopp won the Best FIFA Men’s Coach award for 2019, while the Reds' goalkeeper Alisson Becker sfollowed the footsteps of his coach by being chosen as the Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year 2019.
It is worth mentioning that Egypt's vote for the iconic Egyptian star Mohamed Salah was not taken into consideration. FIFA said that Egypt’s vote for Salah was not counted because the signatures were in capital letters.
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