FIFA The Best Voting Results: Who Votes and How the Count Works
The winners of The Best FIFA Football Awards are revealed at a live event, and FIFA publishes a breakdown of the voting results afterwards. FIFA The Best voting results therefore arrive in layers: first the ceremony, then the points totals for every nominee and the votes of captains, coaches and media. Fan votes carry one quarter of the total, and the Fan Award count is published separately.
Compiled by BuyContestVotesNow editorial desk / Checked
Four groups, one quarter each
The result of a The Best award never rests on fans alone. FIFA splits the vote equally between four voting groups of participants: national coaches of FIFA Member Associations, their team captains, a select group of media from those countries, and fans. Each group carries exactly 25 per cent of the total for the top individual awards. The highest combined total wins, so a nominee loved by fans is only likely to win when the other groups rank that player high too.
The invitation is the same on both sides of the game. Coaches and captains of all 211 member associations' men's national teams choose their top three candidates for the men's awards, and the coaches and captains of the women's national teams select three candidates for each of the women's awards. The tenth edition of the awards kept this structure for the 2025 shortlist phase, which means the fan share of the result has stayed at a quarter even as the ceremony grew.
- National coaches of the 211 FIFA Member Associations
- Team captains of those same national teams
- A select group of media representatives from each country
- Registered fans voting through the organiser's own route
How the picks are calculated
The calculation is points, not a headcount. Each voter selects three players or coaches per category: the first choice receives five points, the second three, and the third one. Add the four groups together and the highest total takes the category. FIFA used a dedicated voting application for the 2025 shortlist voting, so the ballot itself is a ranked list rather than a single tick against one name.
That structure explains the numbers the organiser publishes later. The breakdown lists each nominee's points total, so a reader can see how far a runner-up finished behind the winner and which group ranked a player first. Percentages appear for the Fan Award, where the whole result is one public poll; the player and coach categories are reported in points instead. The table below shows why a fan campaign moves the outcome only at the margin: three of every four points come from inside the game.
In practice this means a single fan push cannot carry a category on its own. It shifts one quarter of the pie, and the remaining three quarters belong to people who watch the sport professionally week in and week out.
- First pick on a ballot: five points
- Second pick: three points
- Third pick: one point
What the voting rules cover
The rules FIFA publishes for the award cover three things: who may take part, how many names appear on a ballot, and through which channel the ballot travels. The voting phase opens once the shortlists are announced, and the dedicated application handles the shortlist vote. Registered members of the fan group cast their picks through the same structure that carries the coaches, captains and journalists, so every group's entry passes through the organiser's own systems.
What the published materials do not cover is enforcement in detail. The documents state the weighting and the channels, but they do not describe how a flagged or invalid pick is handled, what identity checks run behind registration, or how a tie in points would be broken. Those gaps stay gaps until FIFA states them, and no outside claim fills them.
- Who may take part in each group
- How many names appear on a ballot
- Which channel carries the ballot
When the results were announced
FIFA scheduled the 2025 winners' reveal as a special event in Doha, Qatar, broadcast live on 16 December 2025 from 20:00 local time, 18:00 CET. The main categories were saved for the broadcast. Before that, the best fans, goalkeepers and goals were announced in digital videos on FIFA platforms and across social media, along with the winner of the FIFA Fair Play Award.
For a reader tracking the result, the sequence matters more than the hour. There is no running count published while the window is open; the result appears once the voting has closed and the organiser has compiled the four groups. Anyone quoting a figure before the broadcast is quoting something other than the official tally, because the official tally does not exist in public until then.
- Main categories: revealed live at the Doha event
- Fans, goalkeepers and goals: announced earlier in digital videos
- Fair Play Award: announced alongside those videos
What the published results include and what is missing
The published breakdown is the fullest record. It carries each nominee's points total and a full list of the votes from national-team captains and coaches from around the world, as well as from media representatives. That per-voter detail is unusual among fan votes of this size and lets anyone reconstruct how a winner emerged, group by group.
The Fan Award is reported on its own scale. FIFA reported a record 2.7 million votes for the 2025 award, won by the fans of Zakho SC, a club based in Iraq. For 2019 the organiser published a percentage: Silvia Grecco's story received 58.36% of the votes. What is missing is a comparable percentage table for the player and coach categories, and anything like a live tally while the window is open. Those two absences explain most of the confusion around the result every year.
- Points totals for every nominee
- The individual votes of captains and coaches worldwide
- The votes of media representatives
- Fan Award scale figures, published separately
Fake picks, registration and what the organiser checks
The checkable part of the fan route is registration. The Fan Award is based entirely on the votes of registered users, and the shortlist vote ran through a dedicated application, so every entry travels through an account the organiser controls. That is the mechanism the published documents name, and it is the mechanism worth pointing to when a result is questioned.
What the documents do not do is describe detection. Nothing in the published rules states how a fake or duplicated entry is found, what penalty follows, or whether a flagged pick is removed before the points are compiled. A reader who claims a result was distorted carries the burden of proof, because the organiser's own breakdown, published after the ceremony, is the record that counts. The honest position is to trust that published breakdown rather than a screenshot of any counter, and to treat every claim of tampering as unconfirmed until the organiser says otherwise.
- Registration: the Fan Award rests entirely on registered users
- Channel: the shortlist vote ran through a dedicated application
- Record: the post-ceremony breakdown is the official document
Why fans argue about the winner
The argument writes itself. Fans vote for a favourite, the favourite leads the public conversation, and then a different name lifts the trophy because three other groups out-ranked the fans. The 25 per cent ceiling is the whole explanation: no fan campaign, however large, decides a player or coach award on its own.
This is also why disagreements about winners never resolve into a single number. The published points totals show the combined result and the individual votes of captains, coaches and media, so a reader can check whether the fan group agreed with the outcome. Sometimes it did. Often it did not, and the argument starts again the following December. Messi debates fit exactly this pattern, and the breakdown is the only document that can settle one.
- Fan share: capped at 25 per cent of the total
- Points: the winner needs the highest combined figure
- Breakdown: published only after the ceremony
| Award | Who votes | Fan share |
|---|---|---|
| Men's Player | Coaches, captains, media, fans | 25 per cent |
| Women's Player | Coaches, captains, media, fans | 25 per cent |
| Men's Coach | Coaches, captains, media, fans | 25 per cent |
| Women's Coach | Coaches, captains, media, fans | 25 per cent |
| FIFA Fan Award | Registered users | The whole vote |
Do this in order
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Watch for the shortlist
The voting phase opens when FIFA announces the shortlists. Coaches and captains of the 211 member associations receive the invitation for their side of the game, and registered fans vote through the same window.
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Rank three names per category
Each ballot carries three ranked picks: five points for the first, three for the second, one for the third. The dedicated application holds the shortlist vote, so the ranked order is what counts, not a single name.
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Wait for the December broadcast
The 2025 winners were revealed live from Doha on 16 December at 20:00 local time. Fan-facing categories appeared earlier in digital videos on the organiser's platforms and social channels.
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Read the breakdown, not the rumour
After the ceremony FIFA publishes the points totals and the individual votes of captains, coaches and media. That document, not a screenshot, settles what the result actually was.
Fast answers
Who votes for the men's and women's player and coach awards?
Four groups vote: national coaches, team captains, a select group of media and fans. Each group carries exactly 25 per cent of the total, so fans are one voice among four, and the coaches and captains of all 211 FIFA Member Associations take part on both the men's and the women's side.
Do fans decide who wins, or is the fan vote only a part?
No. Fan votes carry exactly 25 per cent of the total, so the pick most popular among fans still needs support from the other three groups to win. A fan favourite is only likely to lift the trophy when the captains, coaches and media rank that player or coach high as well.
How are the votes calculated into the final points total?
Each ballot ranks three candidates: five points for the first pick, three for the second and one for the third. FIFA adds the four groups together and publishes each nominee's points total in the breakdown released after the ceremony.
Who decides on the winners?
The combined points of the four voting groups decide, and the winner of each category is the candidate with the highest total. FIFA reveals the winners at its own broadcast event; in 2025 that reveal came live from Doha on 16 December.
What are the voting rules for the shortlist and the final vote?
The rules set three things: the window opens with the shortlist phase, each voter ranks three candidates per category, and the ballot travels through a dedicated voting application. The published documents do not describe how a flagged or invalid entry is handled.
Messi winning FIFA the Best - do you guys agree on it?
Fans don't settle this award alone. Fan votes are one of four equal groups, so a split among fans, or strong support from captains and coaches, decides the trophy regardless of the public conversation. The published breakdown, with the individual votes of captains, coaches and media, is where the disagreement can be checked rather than argued.
Am I missing anything here?
Three details are easy to overlook. Fan votes are capped at 25 per cent. The Fan Award is a separate registered-user poll with its own scale. And the full breakdown appears only after the ceremony, never during the window.
References
- inside.fifa.com. inside.fifa.com/news/the-best-football-awards-2025-winners-16-december-doha-qatar.
- inside.fifa.com. inside.fifa.com/news/aitana-bonmati-ousmane-dembele-top-honours-the-best-football-awards-2025.
- inside.fifa.com. inside.fifa.com/news/aitana-bonmati-ousmane-dembele-top-honours-the-best-football-awards-2025.
- inside.fifa.com. inside.fifa.com/news/megan-rapinoe-and-lionel-messi-are-the-best-of-2019.
- inside.fifa.com. inside.fifa.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-voting.
FIFA's published rules set the allowance: one ranked shortlist ballot per voter through the dedicated application, three names per category. Entries cast outside the published window are not accepted toward the result, and the organiser describes no exception. The published rules also do not explain what happens to an entry flagged as invalid, so that question stays open until FIFA states it.
Each organiser's own terms decide which votes are valid, and an organiser can void votes or disqualify an entry. ITV's Love Island terms limit each registered mobile number to one vote per voting event and rule out any method the terms do not state. America's Got Talent asks voters to register and accept its official voting rules, with a cap of ten votes per act, per voting method, per voting window. The American Music Awards decided each winner by the total of valid votes in the category.
Organisers write an ordinary voter down in numbers. The American Music Awards allowed up to 30 votes per award per day on each voting platform, the NASCAR All-Star Race fan vote allowed five a day per unique email address, and the iHeartRadio Music Awards allowed 50 a day per category. A crowd of separate voters stays inside limits like these and arrives day by day, with busier days when an organiser opens a boost. This describes how organisers count; it is not a way around a check.
We give no legal advice and cite no statute: the terms that bind a fan vote are the organiser's own, and they fix who may vote. Dancing with the Stars online voters must be at least 18 and in the United States, its territories or Canada; Love Island USA voting is open to US residents aged 18 or older, or with parental permission. We refuse member-only ballots such as the ACM Awards, categories an organiser decides itself, as MTV did with Best Video, and any vote for public office.
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The part of a request that is not delivered before the organiser's voting closes is refunded. A result, a disqualification and a voided vote are never refunded, because the organiser decides all three. Nor is a vote's worth inside the format covered: the MLB All-Star ballot did not carry Phase 1 totals into Phase 2, and at The Game Awards fan voting is one tenth of the vote that decides winners.