FIFA has denied claims that votes for The Best FIFA Men’s Award were incorrectly given to Barcelona star Lionel Messi.
Nicaragua captain Juan Barrera said he had not voted, despite FIFA publishing he had backed Messi to take the crown on his ballot paper.
That led Tuttosport to report Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo - winner in each of the two previous years - had been ‘robbed’.
However, a spokesperson for the governing body told ESPN: “We have checked the voting documents submitted by the Nicaraguan FA and all documents are signed and confirmed with the official stamp of the Nicaraguan FA.
“Having compared with the vote sheets submitted by the federation and the ones we have published on FIFA.com, we confirm that we have the right votes signed by the player. We are asking the Nicaraguan Football Federations to inquire on this matter.”
It added the Egyptian vote for Mohamed Salah was not considered because their signatures “were in capital letters and thus seemed not valid [not authentic]”, while “voting forms were also not signed by the [federation] general secretary which is mandatory.”
The Egypt Football Federation also “received two reminders to submit the properly signed voting forms on August 19”, during which time it was in chaos.
Aaah zile ni rumors lakini hakuna lolote.
Mshindi ni mshindi tuuu.