Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo was named the world’s best player at the inaugural Best FIFA Football Awards 2016 on January 9, 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland.The Real Madrid player beat great rival Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Argentina’s Antoine Griezmann to win the top award of FIFA.
- The winner was decided by votes from national team captains, managers , journalist, and fans registered on FIFA.com from each of 211 nations. Each group had 25 percent of electoral weight for a player’s performances from Nov. 20, 2015 to Nov. 22, 2016.
- Ronaldo earned 34.54 percent of total votes while Messi finished second with 26.42 percent and Griezmann was third at 7.53 percent.
About Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team.
- The 2016 FIFA award was his fourth FIFA award. He has won a series of trophies in the year 2016 including European Championship, Champions League, and Club World Cup, individual best player awards from UEFA. He also received his fourth Ballon d’Or by France Football magazine
List of Winners
| The Best FIFA Men’s Player Award | Cristiano Ronaldo. |
| The Best FIFA Women’s Player Award | Carli Lloyd. |
| The Best FIFA Men’s Coach Award | Claudio Ranieri. |
| The Best FIFA Women’s Coach Award | Silvia Neid. |
| The FIFA Puskás Award 2016 | Mohd Faiz Subri. |
| The FIFA Fair Play Award | Atletico National. |
| The FIFA Fan Award | Dortmund fans and Liverpool fans. |
| The FIFA lifetime achievement award | Falcao. |
| The FIFA FIFPro World11 | Neuer, Dani Alves, Pique, Ramos, Marcelo, Modric, Kroos, Iniesta, Messi, Suarez, Ronaldo. |
FIFA to expand World Cup to 48 teams in 2026
The Soccer’s world governing body, FIFA on January 10, 2017 unanimously approved a grand plan to transform the World Cup environment by increasing the number of teams from the current 32 to 48 starting in 2026.
- Since 1998, when the World Cup expanded to accommodate 32 teams, the format has stayed the same.
- The decision was taken by the FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The FIFA Council, also decided that the format would consist of 16 groups of three teams in the group stage.
- The 48-team, 16-group format will have a total of 80 games, up from 64. The addition of 16 more teams will mean groups are reduced from four to three sides, with swifter progression to the knockout stages.
- Each nation will play the others in its group once, with the top two progressing to an enlarged knockout round comprising 32 teams. The number of games will rise from 64 to 80 but the competition will remain at 32 days in length.
- It also guarantees each team will have at least two matches — Infantino’s initial plan envisaged a playoff round before the main group stage to eliminate 16 teams.
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