Ballon d'Or in London - the most chaotic ever?

Published27 October 2026

It was the first time the Ballon d'Or had been held in London in its 70-year history, with organisers choosing the iconic London Palladium as the venue.

Despite the perfect homecoming for Harry Kane on Monday night, the rest of the event was not plain sailing.

Did the organisers give away the winners early or was it just a simple mix-up? Why was the ceremony delayed and why was the audience booing?

BBC Sport assesses a chaotic night in central London.

Traffic, delay and a rowdy audience

London traffic can cause issues on any day but unfortunately for the Ballon d'Or organisers, they chose to hold a major event just a stone's throw from Oxford Street on the same day the famous shopping area was made traffic-free.

That, coupled with large crowds at the event entrance, meant significant numbers of guests were delayed and the start had to be pushed back by 45 minutes.

Once it did get under way, a rowdy and boisterous audience sat through a ceremony that lasted nearly two and a half hours. On a number of occasions, hosts Kate Scott and Thierry Henry had to briefly pause proceedings while people shouted the names of players in the audience and there were several instances of booing during commercial breaks.

After Kane and Alexia Putellas had been crowned the winners in the two main categories, they then spoke to the world's media in separate press conferences.

Journalists were able to put questions to Putellas but only men were selected to ask Kane a question, with several female journalists having their attempts seemingly ignored.

The Ballon d'Or team has since apologised.

Clashes with police

Hundreds of people gathered outside the London Palladium to try to get a glimpse of the biggest stars in football on the red carpet. A security perimeter of metal fencing and barricades had been erected to try to keep those without a ticket out.

But the BBC Sport team witnessed those barriers being scaled, broken and ripped down and several people being evicted by security after making their way through.

The atmosphere at times was tense, with footage on social media appearing to show fans clashing with security and police.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told BBC Sport that officers were requested to help "after concerns were raised about crowd behaviour and the potential for a breach of the peace".

"A Section 35 dispersal order was authorised at 19:49 GMT and was in place until 04:00 on Tuesday, 27 October," a statement read.

"Officers cleared the crowd, who began throwing scaffolding clips and bricks towards police. No officers were injured.

"Later in the evening, officers dealt with a relatively small number of individuals who had climbed a neighbouring building."

It added that two arrests were made - one for breaching the dispersal order and another for affray and violent disorder.

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Website blunder

The confusion and chaos began hours before the ceremony had even started, after the official Ballon d'Or website published an article declaring Kane as the winner of the men's award.

Further digging revealed similar articles had been published about some of the other favourites to win the men's and women's awards, including Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and London City Lionesses' Putellas.

Was it a genuine mistake? Or a case of trying to divert people's attention from the initial Kane announcement? Which of course turned out to be true.

A Ballon d'Or spokesperson told BBC Sport last night they were "inadvertently published online".

"These articles had been prepared for all nominees and should in no way be considered as an indication of the final results or rankings," the spokesperson said.

The Ballon d'Or official social media accounts also mixed up the names of two of the women's nominees, congratulating 'Alexia Bonmati' on her victory. The post was later deleted.

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