THE FOOTBALL FEDERATION of Macedonia has admitted it made a “technical error” in submitting Goran Pandev’s vote for FIFA Coach of the Year.
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho claimed he did not attend the gala dinner to announce the recipient of the 2012 award due to alleged irregularities in determining the winner, with Spain’s Vicente del Bosque pipping the Portuguese to the prize.
Pandev fuelled rumours of a possible fix when he claimed to have voted for Mourinho, only for his selection to go toward Del Bosque’s tally.
FFM has since acknowledged an error on their part in submitting Pandev’s form.
“When it came to the ballot paper, we contacted Pandev and he verbally expressed his preferences to us — he voted Mourinho as the best coach and gave him five points,” read a statement released by the FFM.
“When completing the slip, with no intention of changing Pandev’s vote, the box for Del Bosque had been ticked off and the fax was sent to Fifa a day later. It was a technical error.”
Regardless of FFM’s error, the Spain coach still won 34.51 per cent of the final vote – a clear 14 per cent ahead of Mourinho.
