UEFA sensationally changed the formation of their fans' team of the year to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo, Sportsmail can reveal.
On Wednesday, European football's governing body named the XI, which is voted for by supporters.
However, the formation picked was a rarely-used 4-2-4, which led to many puzzled queries.
It can now be disclosed that the reason for doing so was because the Portuguese megastar finished fourth in the forwards category, behind rival Lionel Messi, Liverpool's Sadio Mane and Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski.
UEFA chiefs were not impressed and so came up with the formation switch to allocate Juventus's Ronaldo, dropping a midfielder. The unlucky man is understood to have been Chelsea's N'Golo Kante.
The move raises serious questions over the integrity of the exercise and fans of the Chelsea man, not to mention the player himself, may well be furious.
It is even understood that the initial announcement over the team was meant to be made public last week, but the Ronaldo decision and subsequent manoeuvring prompted a delay.
A source said: 'This is really not good. It is effectively vote rigging. Such is Ronaldo's popularity at a senior level within the organisation, alarm bells sounded when he did not make the cut and, as a result, the formation was changed. It makes you wonder what else they get up to.'
A UEFA spokesperson suggested the move was made thanks to Portugal's victory in the Nations League final. 'The formation for this year's team of the year was chosen to reflect the votes of the fans in parallel with the players' achievements in UEFA competitions,' they said.
'As a result, there are five UEFA Champions League winners and four UEFA Nations League finalists (including one winner). The formation changes on a regular basis and this year is no exception.'
Manchester City's Bernardo Silva, who was in the Portugal team, finished 12th in the poll but it is thought there was a reluctance to drop Kante for someone in the same position.
In previous years fans have chosen the formation. In five of the last six years it has been 4-3-3, with the exception coming in 2017 when 4-4-2 was used.
tedy_
628
absolutely rubbish if it was messi they did it for Ronaldo niggas be out here by now throwing shades but cuz it's him their defending such injustice atleast being silent without commenting would have been much better
Quickly-Now-Trent
558
It should literally just be the fan votes. It's not like it actually means anything. Formations should be changed to match the players with the most votes, not the players they way to include. It isn't an accurate representation of the voting system if they go against that. I don't care who is or isn't included, for something that is based on votes, you can't change factors AFTER the vote has been cast. All factors should be laid put before the voting begins. After voting has commenced nothing should be able to change in the structure of the outcome. Otherwise what's the point of voting? If theyre just going to make the results best suit them anyway? This is true for all aspects of life. Anywhere there is tampering after voting has begun, there is then an inaccurate ans biased outcome. You can't change the voting structure once the Ballot's have been cast to choose a President, that's a blatant misuse of power and goes against democracy. Changing the formation is the same as UEFA simply deciding who they wanted in their team. So they shouldn't have had votes. They gave the illusion of a democratic voting system when in reality they are dictators who simply decide what they like. They shouldn't have had a vote at all, just released the team they chose, basically the same thing with their system.
Specialonedxb
549
If Ronaldos popularity was so high with the seniors he wouldnt have been ripped off ballon dor for two consecutive seasons! Coming to new league and scoring such number of goals and winning the league and other awards with Juve on top of uefa nation with Portugal there is no reason he shouldnt be in uefa team of the year!! Dont forget singlehandedly defeating Atletico Madrid in Champions league!! Still dont understand why so many haters for such a legend!! If questions then for sure it should raise on Lewandowski and Messi as well
DelinoArsenal
527
it is now clear that Ronaldo is not amongst the top 3 forwards in the world presently..they had to adjust formation to include him..so pathetic of Uefa. so finding way to include players that don't deserve to be there based on popularity and past.this is injustice .
Benosky1
313
Ronaldo doesn't even care about your useless nominees anymore. Even if he's excluded, Its non of his biz..
peabdknp
158
We all know why he got less votes... Just because he destroyed all these teams [Crylaugh][Crylaugh]
Barca_West
11
Singlehadedly what!! Was he the one crossing and making those vital passing towards himself
Ronaldo fans are so obsessed with him being in any list. The new one these days is come to a new league. They look for any stupid excuse to sing praise of him when he actually did nothing in 2019. He shouldn’t have make that list ahead of Bernado Silva if UEFA really needed a player for the nations league which B Silva was man of the tournament. Biased but they won’t see
fidbknr
8
If Ronaldos popularity was so high with the seniors he wouldnt have been ripped off ballon dor for two consecutive seasons! Coming to new league and scoring such number of goals and winning the league and other awards with Juve on top of uefa nation with Portugal there is no reason he shouldnt be in uefa team of the year!! Dont forget singlehandedly defeating Atletico Madrid in Champions league!! Still dont understand why so many haters for such a legend!! If questions then for sure it should raise on Lewandowski and Messi as well
Point of correction my friend,CR7 didn't singlehandedly beat Atletico Madrid. Unless u are telling us that the goals he was scoring he was assisting himself. Football is a team game, without his mates ,no matter how bad or "average" they may be ,he needs them. Same applies to Messi. I hope u remember that forever.
getup_its5am
8
We all know why he got less votes... Just because he destroyed all these teams [Crylaugh][Crylaugh]
don't hate ronaldo, hate these stupid fans.