The Ballon d'Or award will undergo a number of significant modifications in the run-up to the 2019 ceremony, according to an announcement made on Friday.
Lionel Messi's record-breaking win at this year's presentation sparked debate after he received the prize ahead of Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich and Mohamed Salah of Liverpool.
As a result, France Football's editor-in-chief Pascal Ferre has indicated that the award will undergo four revisions.
To begin with, rather than the complete calendar year as in past years, the award period will coincide with the primary European season. This year's award will only consider footballers' efforts throughout the 2021-22 season, which concludes in the summer with the Women's Euro 2022 tournament. As a result, the men's 2022 World Cup results in Qatar in November and December will only be considered for the 2023 award presentation.
Second, along with the journalists who vote for the Ballon d'Or, former Chelsea and Ivory Coast player Didier Drogba has been added to the voting process. To prepare a list of nominees, Drogba will be joined by Truong Anh Ngoc and Czech juror Karolina Hlavackova.
The third change is that instead of each nation receiving a vote, only the representatives of the first 100 countries in the FIFA rankings for the men's award and the first 50 for the women's award will be allowed to vote.
Finally, the criteria for selecting the winner have been altered, with the award now taking into account not only a player's individual achievement, but also their collective performance, their "class," and their fair play record. The prior year's performance and reputation of a player will not be taken into account while voting for the winner.