Player of Year vote will stay postal

THE PFA will resist calls to introduce an electronic ballot for their Team of the Year and Player of the Year awards because they fear players will stop voting. The current system, in which players vote by filling out paper forms that are delivered to clubs in March, has been criticised for taking place too early in the season. Manchester United’s Paul Pogba was a shock inclusion in the 2018-19 Team of the Year, prompting some fans to suggest voting should take place later in the campaign. One way to facilitate that would be to speed up the system by changing to an electronic vote via email. But the PFA, who review annually, are not planning any alterations. The primary reason is that they suspect players might ignore the request to vote, even if it drops directly into their inbox. The PFA also feel it could take away the excitement of squads filling out the forms after they have been handdelivered by delegates. This season, the forms were sent to all 92 clubs in late March. They were collected in April, before an independent body added up the final tally, with Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk winning Player of the Year.