LONDON: British broadcaster Reshmin Chowdhury and French 1998 World Cup winner Thierry Henry led the Best FIFA Football Awards show at the Hammersmith Apollo in West London. This is how the awards worked:

The award periods:

The award period for the women’s accolades – The Best FIFA Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach and The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper – was between 1 August 2022 and 20 August 2023 (the date of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ final) inclusive. The award period for the men’s prizes – The Best FIFA Men’s Player, The Best FIFA Men’s Coach and The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper – was between 19 December 2022 and 20 August 2023 inclusive.

The shortlists:

Nominations for the awards were compiled by FIFA in collaboration with football stakeholders. Later, shortlists were determined by two separate panels of experts in men’s and women’s football. These panels comprised respected former players and coaches.

The expert panels:

Women’s awards: Mercy Akide (Nigeria), Shirley Cruz (Costa Rica), Amy Duggan (Australia), Isabella Echeverri (Colombia), Mia Hamm (USA), Jessica Houara (France), Mana Iwabuchi (Japan), Manon Melis (Netherlands), Patrizia Panico (Italy), Clémentine Touré (Côte d’Ivoire) and Kirsty Yallop (New Zealand). Men’s awards: Petr Čech (Czechia), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Brett Emerton (Australia), Rio Ferdinand (England), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Kaká (Brazil), Mario Kempes (Argentina), Alexi Lalas (USA), Jon Obi Mikel (Nigeria), Park Ji-sung (Korea Republic) and Ivan Vicelich (New Zealand).

FIFA published the shortlists for the respective award categories, on Thursday, September 14, 2023.

The voting:

The winners of The Best FIFA Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Men’s Player, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach, The Best FIFA Men’s Coach, The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper and The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper awards are selected by an international jury comprising the current coaches of all women’s/men’s national teams (one per team), the current captains of all women’s/men’s national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans from all over the world registered on FIFA.com.

Each jury member was requested to nominate, in decreasing order of merit, the three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers whom they considered to be most deserving of the respective award. The three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers nominated by each jury member will receive five points, three points, or one points respectively, depending on whether the jury member places the player, coach, or goalkeeper first (five points), second (three points) or third (one point).

The award is bestowed upon the player, coach or goalkeeper in each particular award category who received the most scoring points.

For the avoidance of doubt, women’s national-team coaches and captains voted for women’s awards, while men’s national-team coaches and captains voted for men’s awards.

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