The dictionary describes an apology as a written or spoken expression of one's regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another.
In his active days, Andres Iniesta was the engine room, as is often said in football, for both his club, Barcelona and country, Spain.
He held the midfield with so much authority and command that his team mates, especially the scorers got the needed killer passes that made scoring as smooth as hot knife sliding through butter.
He helped Barcelona win honours both in the LaLiga and in Europe but the accolade always went to Lionel Messi, an equally wonderful player.
Iniesta never argued about being in Messi's shadows in Barcelona. He kept doing his best for the club.
However, his luck came in 2010 when he and his teammates in the Spanish national team wowed the world after many failed attempts by lifting the World Cup on African soil for the first time in their history.
Iniesta scored the lone goal against The Netherlands that gave Spain the much coveted World Cup trophy they have searched for in over seven decades since their first appearance at the Mundial in 1934.
Everyone that year expected that Iniesta's time to win the Ballon d'Or had finally come. But it was not to be as the trophy went shockingly to Messi. On a year Messi and Argentina crashed out of the World Cup, which Spain won, after losing scandalously to Germany 4-0.
Organisers of the Ballon d'Or got bashes from football followers around the world condemning the Award and accusing them of always favouring Messi.
The excuse for giving Messi the award was only because Barcelona won the Champions League that year after beating Manchester United 3-1 in the final. Ironically Messi didn't score Barcelona's three goals but scored only the second of the three.
It was surprising that eight years after that 'robbery' against Iniesta, organisers of the Ballon d'Or, France Football apologised to the Barcelona and Spain hero for denying him his once in a life time opportunity to join the legion of Ballon d'Or winners.
To make the apology even annoying, France Football urged Iniesta to excel at the 2018 World Cup which Russia hosted so he can be crowned the Ballon d'Or winner.
What manner of apology after robbing Peter to pay Paul. For the fact that Iniesta contributed to Barcelona's Champions League win over Manchester United and went ahead to inspire Spain to their first World Cup title ever, France Football or better still the voters in that year's Ballon
d'Or were unfair to Iniesta. So that apology was unnecessary and not even enough to correct the injustice.
The story of Iniesta is appropriate this time after another seeming 'robbery' or injustice from the same France Football or voters in the 2024 Ballon d'Or contest.
Last Monday, the world waited with bathed breath for the announcement of the winner of the award, which tilted the crown to Brazil and Real Madrid's forward Vinicius Jr.
Of course a day to the event, news filtered in that Real Madrid and their players were boycotting the event because the result had leaked to them and their star boy was not going to win it.
Their action, methinks, is not because Vinicius wasn't going to win it but that he was robbed as he deserved it more.
If Barcelona didn't boycott the 2010 edition after Iniesta was 'robbed', it was because the 'robbery' favoured their 'beloved son' Messi and Iniesta's team-mate, like head or tail, Barcelona won.
I am not supporting the action of Real Madrid but there is a limit to which you can push someone to the wall and not expect him or her to react.
Real Madrid were not total losers on the night as the team of the year and the coach of the year went to them.
They should have used their attendance to make a statement about the integrity of the award which is gradually waning.
Already Vinicius has accused them, organisers and voters I think, of denying him the award because of his fight against racism, especially in Spain which has been targeted at him several times. He is not the only one reacting to the seeming injustice but his fellow Brazilians back home.
Guga Chacra, a commentator from the leading Brazilian TV news network Globo News said, "We know that Vinicius is a target of racism in Spanish football and other parts of Europe, and he actively fights against racism. This leads us to question whether the result that gave Rodri the win was influenced by prejudice and racism against Vinicius."
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Milly Lacombe, a sports commentator for Brazil's UOL news website, said that the Ballon d'Or "missed the opportunity to pay a heartfelt tribute to the most talked-about player of the season - known for his dribbling, goals, ability to make decisive plays, and social activism".
France Football's chief editor, Vincent Gracia tried to defend the outcome of the voting thus: "It was close.
Vinícius probably suffered from the presence of Jude Bellingham and Dani Carvajal (his Real Madrid teammates) in Top 5."
However, in a system where voting is done by human beings who do so based on one sentiment or the other, you can never get it right hundred percent.
Like in schools where results are not computed only by what a student scores in an examination but also in addition to what he gets in a continuous assessment, other criteria such as contributions to club and country, fairplay as well as his entertainment value because football is not only about scoring goals.
I hope France Football would not come back years later to apologise to Vinicius for the 'error' done again as they did on the Iniesta case.
