The Ballon d'Or organising committee has moved to explain how reports of Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal winning the award ended up online just hours before the ceremony.
Three separate articles had appeared on the official Ballon d'Or website, each one declaring a different nominee the winner.
The committee said in its statement: "Introductory reports about some of the nominees for the Ballon d'Or, prepared by the award's website, were published online by mistake. These articles had been written in advance for each nominee, in anticipation of their possible victory in the award."
"These articles do not in any way reveal the ranking of the top three places, which remains unknown to everyone to date," the statement added.