BBC African Football of the Year vote terms and conditions

BBC African Footballer of the Year vote terms and conditions

The BBC African Footballer of the Year 2013 will be announced during a live edition of Focus on Africa on BBC World Service and BBC World News at 1735 GMT on 2 December, 2013.

Voting details and criteria are below.

Nomination process for shortlist

The nominations for the five man shortlist were drawn up by leading football experts throughout Africa, where the experts were asked to name their top five contenders in no order of preference.

They are asked to select their nominations on the following criteria: individual skill; technical ability; teamwork; consistency; impact on results and fair play.

The shortlist will be announced during click Newsday on 11 November at 0545GMT on BBC World Service. It will also appear at click www.bbc.com/africanfootball.

In the event of a tie-in, the nomination process the African Footballer of the Year production team reserve the right to extend the shortlist to a maximum of six.

Definition of who is eligible

People are eligible to win the BBC African Footballer of the Year Award if they are eligible to represent an African national team.

Public voting

Once the shortlist is published, the award will be decided by public vote. The public may vote either online through the website or by SMS.

This voting process will open at 0545 GMT on Monday 11 November 2013 and close at 1800 GMT on Monday 25 November 2013.

The number of online votes will be added to the number of text votes and the final result will be available on the BBC African Footballer of the Year website along with all terms and conditions.

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

Public vote - Terms and conditions

1. This competition is administered by the BBC and the award meets the requirements of the BBC's code of conduct on competitions, which can be found on click BBC's code of conduct for competitions.

2. The winner will receive an inscribed trophy and be awarded the title BBC African Footballer of the Year 2013.

3. The shortlist for the BBC African Footballer of the Year will have been drawn up by a panel of football experts from throughout Africa.

4. The criteria on which the shortlist will have been drawn up is as follows: individual skill, technical ability, teamwork, consistency, impact on results and fair play.

5. The shortlist will be put to the public vote via SMS text and through the BBC African Footballer of the Year website click www.bbcworldservice.com/africanfootballer and click www.bbc.com/africanfootball. You can vote using either method. SMS votes are limited to one text per caller and there will be a maximum of one vote per computer for online.

6. The number to text for all contenders will be the same and will be revealed at 0545 GMT on 11 November 2013 and be broadcast on-air and published on the voting 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 click BBC Privacy Policy click here.

9. The deadline for voting is 1800 GMT on Monday 25 November 2013. 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 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 Africa and BBC World Service Future Media.

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.