Ballon d’Or night disrupted by crowd trouble, delays and winner announcement blunders

Harry Kane’s first Ballon d’Or title was overshadowed by delays, crowd disorder and a series of organisational mistakes at the awards ceremony in London.

The event was held in the capital for the first time in the prize’s 70-year history, with the London Palladium chosen as the venue.

Kane, captain of England and Bayern Munich striker, enjoyed an ideal homecoming on Monday as he collected the men’s award for the first time in his career. However, the rest of the evening was far less straightforward.

BBC Sport identified several incidents that contributed to the disorder, including questions over whether the winners had been revealed prematurely, why the ceremony started late and why sections of the audience booed.

Heavy traffic can cause problems in London on any day, but organisers had chosen a major venue only a short distance from Oxford Street on the same day the famous shopping area had been closed to traffic.

Large crowds gathered outside the venue, and the combination meant many guests arrived late. The start of the ceremony was consequently pushed back by 45 minutes.

Once proceedings began, a noisy and enthusiastic audience remained involved throughout an event lasting almost two and a half hours. Hosts Kate Scott and Thierry Henry had to pause the broadcast on several occasions while supporters chanted players’ names, while there were also several instances of booing during commercial breaks.

After Kane and Alexia Putellas were crowned the winners of the two main awards, both spoke to international media at separate news conferences.

Journalists were allowed to ask Putellas questions, but only men were selected to question Kane. Several female journalists appeared to be overlooked, prompting the Ballon d’Or team to apologise.

Hundreds of people had gathered outside the London Palladium hoping to see football’s biggest stars on the red carpet. Metal fencing and barriers were put in place to keep out people without tickets.

BBC Sport witnessed people climbing over, breaking and removing the barriers. Several were escorted away by security after getting through. Tensions rose at times, with social media footage showing clashes involving supporters, security staff and police.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told BBC Sport officers had been called after “concerns were raised about crowd behaviour and the potential for a breach of the peace”.

The force said: “A Section 35 dispersal order was issued at 19:49 GMT and was in place until 04:00 on Tuesday, 27 October.”

It added: “Officers dispersed a crowd which began throwing scaffolding clips and bricks at police. No officers were injured.”

The statement continued: “Later in the evening, officers dealt with a relatively small number of individuals who climbed a nearby building.”

Two people were arrested – one for breaching the dispersal order and another on suspicion of riot and public order offences.

Confusion had begun hours before the ceremony when the official Ballon d’Or website published an article announcing Kane as the men’s winner. Further searches found similar articles about other candidates, including Kylian Mbappe of Real Madrid and Putellas of London City Lionesses.

A Ballon d’Or spokesperson told BBC Sport the articles had been “published online by mistake”.

They added: “These articles had been prepared for all nominees and should in no way be considered an indication of the final results or rankings.”

The official Ballon d’Or social media accounts also incorrectly named two female nominees, congratulating “Alexia Bonmati” on her victory before deleting the post.