The Ballon d'Or staged its first-ever ceremony in London across its 70-year history on Monday night, but the event at the London Palladium descended into disruption and logistical turmoil. Although the evening delivered a celebratory homecoming for men's trophy winner Harry Kane and women's recipient Alexia Putellas, the festivities were severely impacted by technical errors, security incidents, and severe scheduling problems.
Trouble began well before the curtains opened, with start times pushed back by 45 minutes from 20:00 GMT to 20:45 GMT. Organisers chose a venue located near Oxford Street on a day the shopping district was designated traffic-free, stranding arriving guests in congestion alongside crowded access points. Outside, hundreds of spectators congregated near the red carpet, where security barriers were scaled, smashed, and torn down. Security personnel evicted multiple individuals who forced their way past the perimeter, and clips shared on social media showed tense altercations involving fans, security staff, and police.
The disruptions continued within the London Palladium during a broadcast that stretched close to two and a half hours. Presenters Thierry Henry and Kate Scott were forced to halt the programme intermittently to manage a boisterous crowd chanting players' names, while noticeable booing rang out over commercial breaks. Afterwards, post-event media conferences prompted further criticism when only male reporters were granted questions to Kane, with multiple female journalists seemingly bypassed, prompting an apology from the Ballon d'Or team.
Administrative blunders had already plagued the showcase earlier in the day when the Ballon d'Or website inadvertently posted an article announcing Kane as the men's winner ahead of schedule. While prepared articles regarding other contenders—including Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and London City Lionesses' Putellas—were also discovered online, official social accounts compounded the confusion by erroneously congratulating 'Alexia Bonmati' before deleting the post. A Ballon d'Or spokesperson stated the pieces were "inadvertently published online" and stressed that content prepared across all nominees should never have been interpreted as an official confirmation of the results.