FIFA have explained why Egypt's votes for Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah in the Best FIFA Men's Player award did not count.
Salah finished fourth in the running for the award, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Virgil van Dijk and winner Lionel Messi, who was unveiled on Monday.
It appeared as though Egypt coach Shawky Gharib and captain Ahmed Elmohamady had not voted for Salah and the Liverpool man even removed all mention of Egypt from his social media profiles.
But Egypt were adamant that was not the case, saying Gharib and Elmohamady both voted for Salah and wrote to FIFA to ask why their votes were not counted.
Now the governing body have responded by stating Egypt's original votes were invalid with their FA then twice ignoring reminders to submit correct forms.
In a statement on Thursday, FIFA said signatures on Egypt’s ballots “were in capital letters and thus seemed not valid (not authentic)".
FIFA added that “voting forms were also not signed by the (federation) general secretary which is mandatory".
They also noted its voting office is monitored by independent auditors, and confirmed Egypt was first contacted for confirmation of the ballots then “received two reminders to submit the properly signed voting forms on Aug 19".
