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Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema has criticised the Ballon d’Or, saying the ceremony does not treat women’s football fairly.
Of the seven prizes on offer at the 2022 ceremony, only one celebrated the success of women footballers — the Ballon d’Or Feminin. Miedema said there should be equal representation at the global football awards.
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“I didn’t feel appreciated as a woman footballer there,” she told the BBC’s Behind the Goals podcast.
“If they want to have women involved, they have to do it in a different way.
“They had five or six different awards for the men’s game while the women only have one. If they want to make it equal, they have to give the same awards to men’s and women’s football.”
Miedema attended the ceremony with her partner Beth Mead, who finished second in the 2022 women’s rankings.
A picture of both Miedema and Mead was captioned describing the latter as a “guest.”
While finding the comical side, Miedema explained how it further showed disrespect to the women’s game.
“Waking up the next morning and that picture pops up, that states the issue we had the night before,” she said.
“We’ve got the number two from that year, who should arguably have been number one, turning up to the event as ‘my guest’. That would obviously never happen if [Lionel] Messi and Neymar had been walking next to each other.
“We obviously joke about it, but that shows there are so many improvements to be made, it needs to be organised so much better.”
Miedema and Mead have helped fire Arsenal to second place in the Women’s Super League.