Ballon d'Or ceremony plagued by congestion and delays at London venue

The 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony was held at the London Palladium on Monday night, marking a historic first for the prestigious award in the British capital. However, the event did not run smoothly, despite being perfectly suited to Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane.

A combination of factors contributed to the chaos. The venue's location near Oxford Street, which had been made traffic-free that day, caused congestion and delays for many guests. Adding to the problem were large crowds at the entrance, resulting in a 45-minute delay before proceedings began.

The ceremony itself lasted nearly two and a half hours, with hosts Kate Scott and Thierry Henry frequently pausing to allow rowdy audience members to shout out players' names during commercial breaks. On several occasions, boos rang out from the crowd during these intervals.

Despite the disruptions, the event finally got underway, but it was clear that something had gone awry in the planning stages. The question on everyone's mind was whether the winners had been inadvertently revealed or if this was simply a case of poor organisation.

As the Ballon d'Or ceremony reached its conclusion, two separate press conferences were held for the winners of the main categories: Harry Kane and Alexia Putellas. The events provided an opportunity for journalists to pose questions to the newly crowned champions.

However, the question-and-answer sessions were not without controversy. It emerged that only male journalists were permitted to ask questions of Kane during his press conference, with several female reporters seemingly being ignored in the process. This anomaly sparked widespread criticism and raised questions about the fairness of the proceedings.

The Ballon d'Or team has since issued an apology for the incident, acknowledging that mistakes had been made. The organisation's response is likely to be seen as a damage limitation exercise, aimed at mitigating the negative publicity surrounding the event.

In the aftermath of the ceremony, attention turned to the security measures put in place outside the London Palladium. A large crowd had gathered on the red carpet, with some individuals attempting to breach the security perimeter by scaling or breaking through metal fencing and barricades.

The official website of the prestigious Ballon d'Or award published a surprise announcement hours before the ceremony began, declaring England's Harry Kane as the winner of the men's award.

Similar articles were also found on the site announcing other favourites to win in both the men's and women's categories, including Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and London City Lionesses' Putellas.

The authenticity of these premature announcements was called into question, with some speculating that they might be a deliberate attempt to distract from the initial Kane announcement, which ultimately proved true.

A Ballon d'Or spokesperson later clarified that the articles were "inadvertently published online" as part of pre-prepared content for all nominees.