FIFA denies foul play in Messi winning World Player award

Zurich, Sep 27 (IANS) Global governing body of football FIFA has denied claims that their World Player of the Year vote was rigged to make sure Lionel Messi won the award.Nicaragua captain Juan Barrera called for an investigation into the integrity of the vote after he insisted that he did not vote for Messi, according to a report in www.metro.co.uk.FIFA looked into Barrera's allegations and released a statement to ESPN, which read: "We have checked the voting documents submitted by the Nicaraguan FA and all documents are signed and confirmed with the official stamp of the Nicaraguan FA."Having compared with the vote sheets submitted by the federation and the ones we have published on FIFA.com, we confirm that we have the right votes signed by the player. We are asking the Nicaraguan Football Federations to inquire on this matter." Messi won the award earlier in the week ahead of Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk who helped the Reds win the Champions League. Juventus and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo was also in contention.
--IANS dm/arm