BBC Women's Footballer of the Year vote terms and conditions

BBC Women's Footballer of the Year Award 2015 vote terms and conditions

The winner of the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2015 will be announced during a live edition of Sport Today on the BBC World Service on 26 May 2015. It will also appear on bbc.com/womensfootball.

Voting details and criteria are below.

Nominations process and shortlist

The nominations for the 5 player shortlist were drawn up by leading football experts around the world, consisting of women's football journalists, coaches, administrators and former players. The experts were asked to name their top five contenders in order of preference: 5 points for their top player, 4 to second and so on.

They were asked to select their nominations according to the following criteria: technical ability, impact on club and/or country results, consistency, improved level of performance, teamwork, fairplay.

Five women's football journalists from the original expert panel were then asked to narrow down the top ten players to a five player shortlist.

The experts were not paid to take part in the nomination process.

Definition of who is eligible

Players are eligible to win the BBC Women's Footballer Award of the Year 2015 if they are eligible to represent a recognised national or club level women's football team.

Public voting

Once the shortlist is published, the award will be decided by public vote. The public can vote online through the BBC website at bbc.com/womensfootball or by SMS.

The voting process will open at 1700GMT (1800 BST) on 26 April and close at 0900GMT (1000 BST) on 11 May 2015.

The number of online votes will be added to the number of text votes and the final result will be available on the BBC Women's Footballer Award website, along with terms and conditions.

In the event that there is a tie, the award will be shared.

How to vote - SMS

To vote for BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2015 by SMS, text the number of the player you wish to vote for to [phone].

Text 1 for Veronica Boquete, 2 for Nadine Kessler, 3 for Kim Little, 4 for Marta or 5 for Asisat Oshoala.

Standard international text rates apply. Please check with your service provider. SMS votes are limited to one vote per mobile phone number.

How to vote - online

By visiting bbc.com/womensfootball. Select the player you want to vote for and submit.

Terms and conditions

1. This vote is administered by the BBC and the Award meets the requirements of the BBC's code of conduct on competitions & votes, which can be found on www.bbc.co.uk/competitioncode.

2. The winner will receive a trophy and be revealed on air as BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2015.

3. The shortlist for the BBC Women's Football Award will have been drawn up by a panel of football experts and BBC production staff.

4. The criteria on which the shortlist will have been drawn on includes - Technical ability, Impact on club and/or country results, Consistency, Improved level of performance, Teamwork, Fair play.

5. The shortlist will be put to the public vote via SMS text and through the BBC website at bbc.com/womensfootball. You can vote using either method. SMS votes are limited to one text per caller.

6. The number to text for all contenders will be the same and will be broadcast on-air and published on the website. For each contender, there will be a keyword or number that will need to appear at the beginning of the text votes.

7. In the UK, text messages will be charged at the standard rate of your service provider. Charges for other countries may vary, so please check with your network provider. Please be sure you carefully key-in only the key word or number of the nominee you wish to vote for. Any text message received without a correct keyword will not count as a vote but the message will still be charged. You must obtain the bill payer's permission before voting. There will be no return, bounceback confirmation message as part of the vote.

8. The BBC will only ever use your personal details for the purposes of administering this vote and will not publish them or provide them to anyone without your permission. If you would like to know more about the BBC's privacy policy, please see the BBC Privacy Policy at www.bbc.co.uk/privacy.

9. Voting will open at 1800 BST (1900 GMT) 26 April 2015. The deadline for voting is 1000 BST (0900 GMT) on 11 May 2015. Please do not text before the lines open, or after the lines have closed, as your vote will not be counted, but you the message will still be charged.

10. The decision of the vote is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

11. The Award prize must be taken as stated and cannot be deferred. There will be no cash alternatives. There will be no prize for voting.

12. The BBC, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries and/or agencies cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any telephone network or line, internet access, system, server, provider or otherwise which may result in any vote being lost or not properly registered or recorded.

13. No ineligible entries will be considered. The BBC reserves the right to disqualify votes if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent voting has occurred or if it considers there has been a deliberate attempt to manipulate the result

14. The BBC reserves the right to cancel this vote at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control. In the event of any such cancellation or suspension, a technical failure or any other malfunction with the phone vote, the online vote or both, the BBC reserves the right to arrange for the winner to be decided by a contingency arrangement or replacing the phone vote and/or the online vote with a panel of experts.

15. Those taking part in this vote are deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them.

16. All voting will be overseen by BBC and the result will be independently verified.

17. The BBC reserves the right to disqualify a nominee or withhold an award if it considers, at its absolute discretion, that to proceed with that nominee or award risks bringing the BBC into disrepute.

18. These rules are subject to the laws of England and Wales.