FIFA player of the year nomination process needs reform

As you may already know, Canada’s hero from London 2012 did not make the shortlist for FIFA female player of the year.

Instead, that list included Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan of the U.S., as well as five-time winner Marta of Brazil — but not Canada’s Christine Sinclair.

This does not sit well with Canadian soccer followers. Some have called it a snubbing. Canadian coach John Herdman called it a travesty. A lot of Canadians feel this was FIFA’s way of sticking it to Sinclair for her comments at the Olympics.

Any way you interpret it, there are flaws in the process.

Each year, FIFA creates a list of candidates. That list is then given to each participating nation of women’s soccer. The coach, captain and selected media representative of each country vote to whittle the list down to three finalists.

The reigning seven-time Canadian player of the year has been on that list six of the last eight years. This year, more than ever, she deserved to be in the final three.

Let’s single out Marta’s nomination. It is the eighth straight year the Brazilian has been on the shortlist. Has she been a top three player year in and year out for eight straight years? Arguably no — not the last two, anyway.

She seems to be that token nomination. Treated like the modern day Pele of women’s soccer, she is held in high regard by the lower-ranked countries that continue to drive votes her way.

Consider last year’s voting. Forty- first- ranked Georgia was the highest women’s side to vote her No. 1. Of the top 20 nations, just more than a handful or so even had Marta in the top three.

It appears the minnows of the female game are out of touch with actuality.

If you solely look at what Marta did in 2012 compared to Sinclair, the choice is obvious.

Sinclair scored 23 goals in 22 games for Canada. Marta scored a measly two in seven games for Brazil. Sinclair was top scorer in qualifying and led the Olympics with six. Brazil’s qualification round was last year, so that wouldn’t even count.

Sinclair scored a hat trick against U.S.A. in the semi final. No team has scored three against U.S.A. in a single match since Australia lost 5-4 back in 2008. That stretch spans 97 games.

Sinclair’s inspiring performance lifted her country to a first-ever podium finish at a FIFA senior-level competition. It was Canada’s first team medal at a Summer Games since 1936.

Marta’s performance in London was disappointing, to say the least. Her only two goals, including a penalty, came against last-place Cameroon in a 5-0 shellacking. In the other three contests, Brazil was shut out twice and barely beat lightweights New Zealand. They quietly exited London at the quarter-final stage.

The only thing edging Marta over Sinclair is at the club level. While Sinclair focused on national duties, Marta joined Tyreso of the Swedish League Damallsvenskan. She scored 12 times and finished seventh in league scoring. But the thing is, Marta didn’t even win the MVP award, nor was she named the league’s best forward.

When Marta herself was asked, she claimed she would have listed Sinclair No. 1.

A process that seems to work fairly well for the men does not so much for the women. So how does FIFA clean up this nomination process? If it’s anything like the slow moving ongoings of goal-line technology, or how long it took for the Coca-Cola FIFA world rankings to become more accurate, Sinclair will be long retired by then. Lee Kormish is a freelance writer who can be reached at leekormish@sasktel.net or Twitter.com/leekormish.