FIFA explain Egypt’s Best Player vote controversy

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah

Friday Sep 27, 2019. 11:00

FIFA have moved to clear up the controversy over why the votes of Egypt Olympic coach Shawky Gharib and captain Ahmed Elmohamady were not counted for the Best Player that went to Lionel Messi this week.

The duo were incensed after their votes for compatriot Mo Salah were not counted, but FIFA says this was because of administrative errors on their forms.

The two issues appear to be that the name of Salah was in capital letters on both of their forms, which is not allowed, but perhaps more seriously the forms were not signed by the Egyptian Football Association General Secretary, Tharwat Sewilam, which is a mandatory requirement.

FIFA have yet to explain though how the votes of Sudan coach Zdravko Logarušić were scrambled after he voted for Salah, but his top pick was recorded as Messi.

Nicaraguan captain Juan Barrera also claims that he did not vote in the awards, but has been credited with picking Messi as the top player.