This morning Brazilian and Orlando Pride forward Marta won the FIFA Best World Player of the Year award for a record sixth time and beat out Olympique Lyonnais duo Dzsenifer Marozsan and Ada Hegerberg.

Along with this announcement came the official voting for coaches, captains and media which quickly became the topic of discussion.

I had been waiting for this information since it was announced Sam Kerr didn't make the top three.

Voting sees National Team coaches, National Team captains, media and fans each have 25 percent of the voting for the Women and Men's Player of the Year along with the coach of the year awards.

Kerr finished ninth in the voting, which was a shock to anyone who had watched her between August 7, 2017 to May 24, 2018, the time period which is considered for the award. 

This included setting a new NWSL record when she scored four goals in a single game before eventually being awarded the leagues Golden Boot and MVP award after finishing the 2017 season with a record-breaking 17 goals.

Back home, Kerr became the fourth Australian to win the 2017 AFC Women’s Player of the Year award in November last year. She was the joint Julie Dolan medal winner alongside Clare Polkinghorne for the 2017/18 W-League season and was also the Golden Boot winner.

We can't just look at Kerr. Matildas coach Alen Stajcic finished last in the Women's Coach of the Year award despite taking Australia to their highest ever FIFA ranking. 

So why did this happen?

There are two main issues: Popularity and lack of exposure. 

The two go hand in hand, if you have no exposure to the other players you will vote for the player you have heard about. 

Now, I have nothing against Marta, she is a fantastic player and legend of the game but if you break down the voting she got five points from American Samoa, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Iran, Vanuatu, Guatemala, Guinea, Iran, Jamaica, Macau, Madagascar, Mongolia, St. Lucia, Uganda, Cayman Islands, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Belize, Bhutan, Ivory Coast, Guam, Guayana, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Ireland, Serbia, Uganda and Uruguay.

Now 13 of these teams are considered inactive, meaning they haven't played football in 18 months but If you only took into account the votes from the top 25 FIFA ranked nations the voting would've seen Pernille Harder be crowned the winner despite not making the final three.

Kerr would jump to fourth while Marta would've finished 10th.

People know who Marta is, she is a global name because of her achievements over the past 18 years. It's kind of the same reason why Mo Salah won the Puskas Award and why Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi dominated the FIFA Best in previous years.

Now, I'm not saying that Kerr isn't popular but the reality is that there is a footballing world outside of Australia and the US who may not have witnessed her achievements.

Yes, people can watch her play in NWSL but that isn't a league which appeals to everyone, maybe because they don't have possible national team players in the league or it's just not on their radar so don't take notice. 

What about the W-League or Matildas? Well, outside of Australia, it's virtually impossible unless you have a VPN and access to Foxtel.

What about the access we have in Australia to leagues or national teams around the world? It's limited, to say the least. 

Sadly, I feel even if we make women's football more accessible, the majority of people would stay inside their footballing bubbles.

It's kind of like watching Eurovision where everyone votes in their blocs as seen from the information below.

If people don't watch each individual player or team then how do we expect the award to be won fairly? 

FIFA would need to change its voting system to ensure fairness across the board and while there may be a number of ways to do just that, I'll put my idea forward. 

  • Completely remove the fan vote 
  • Captains and coaches can't vote for players from their own nation
  • Only nations which have played games in the voting period can vote

Whether it is this idea or another, there is no denying that something needs to change with the FIFA Best Football Awards. 

Note: All voting information above only includes media, coach and player taken from FIFA.