Ancelotti Is Right: Blatter's Comments Further Pollute Ballon d'Or Process

Even when Sepp Blatter is right, he's wrong.

On Tuesday the FIFA president quite controversially opined that Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and not Argentina captain Lionel Messi, should have won the Golden Ball at the 2014 World Cup.

Clive Rose/Getty Images

"I think the decision was an incorrect one," he remarked while attending the Moscow presentation of the tournament's 2018 logo, according to Inside Spanish Football.

"I was surprised when I received the decision that had been decided by the committee," he added, before revealing that Neuer would have been a more deserving recipient.

No doubt a lot of people agree with his assertion. In fact, it's arguable that Messi wasn't even the standout player on his own team, let alone at the competition as a whole.

But that's beside the point.

Blatter has absolutely no business weighing in on awards his organisation presents and that he doesn't have a vote on. At least an official one.

That many of football's individual prizes have more to do with politics and campaigning than actual on-field accomplishments is news to no one, and it's in that context that the 78-year-old's comments are particularly troublesome.

Christof Koepsel/Getty Images

That leads us to the Ballon d'Or. 

The Neuer camp, which will surely be bolstered by a supportive German press in the next few months (and understandably so), has already received the high-profile backing of former Ukraine international Andriy Shevchenko, as per Sportskeeda (h/t Yahoo! Sports) to scoop the award, and Blatter's assertion that the Bayern Munich No. 1 was overlooked in Brazil would seem to add additional support to the crusade.

If nothing else, it will serve to muddy an already polluted voting process where national team captains and managers and various members of the media combine to elect the recipient of the sport's most prestigious, individual gong.

Even without Blatter's input, the procedure is a joke. (Jamaica manager Winfried Schafer thought Robert Lewandowski to be world football's best player for 2013, as per the BBC; Slovakia captain Martin Skrtel voted for then-Liverpool teammate Luis Suarez. Both votes from Wales went to Gareth Bale). With it, it's an exercise lacking even the hint of credibility.

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, who doesn't have a Ballon d'Or vote, hit back at Blatter's comments, Wednesday, when he told AS it was "impossible to shut the FIFA president up."

He added: "It always surprises me what [Blatter] does, but what can we do? It's impossible to shut the mouth of the FIFA president."

Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Naturally, Ancelotti is backing Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo to win a third Ballon d'Or, and he admitted as much to AS, saying, "It is Cristiano's year. He has been scoring goals and winning important titles."

But that's what he's supposed to say.

His assessment of Blatter merely vocalised what everyone else is thinking.