The Ballon d’Or award for the best football player is undergoing new rule changes that will be implemented for the first time in the 2022 edition.

The first change is the date of the award, which has become October, and earlier – January.

The second change in people allowed voting. Previously, the award, run by the newspaper France Football, allowed selected journalists from all over the world to rate and vote for players, but now it will only allow journalists from the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings.

The third change is the method of selecting nominated players, where previously voters were required to rate players on three data points, the first being the player’s individual level during the season, and the second being his achievements with the teams he played for. per season, and the third is the player’s football career.

The award did not change the first two selection criteria, but removed the third criterion, i.e. “player’s career”, and asked voters not to think about the player’s career and focus on the current season.

In addition, the award decided to add a new voting criterion – the player’s actions and evaluation at the level of “fair play”.