Nominations for Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah from Egypt's captain Ahmed Elmohamady and acting coach Shawky Gharib were not included.

FIFA claimed the votes were not counted because they did not seem valid due to the signatures on the voting forms being in capital letters.

The forms were also said to lack a mandatory signature by Egyptian Football Association general secretary Tharwat Sewilam.

FIFA has now moved to clarify the issue again.

"The voting procedure for each of the awards is supervised and monitored by an independent observer, in this case PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland," a FIFA statement read.

"FIFA and PwC follow the Rules of Allocation and relevant standard control procedures.

"As per these procedures, FIFA requested all member associations to submit their voting forms both electronically and in writing.

"The written documents must also be signed by the responsible persons of the Association, as well as by the persons authorised to vote.

"Therefore in order for a vote to be valid it must include the respective signatures and the Member Association’s stamp.

"Both FIFA and the independent observer can demonstrate that all the votes submitted in accordance with the rules and within the deadlines were taken into account.

"Consequently, there is no doubt whatsoever as to the authenticity of the result.

"Should there have been any case of wrong-doing, and even if this did not affect the result of the vote, FIFA will investigate and apply sanctions where necessary."

Barcelona's Lionel Messi won the award on Monday (September 23), with Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk second and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo third.

Salah ranked fourth in the voting, but the invalid votes would not have had an impact on the standings.

Since the awards ceremony, Salah has removed "Egypt" from his Twitter profile, which now reads: "Footballer for Liverpool FC".

He also posted a tweet which translates as: "Whatever they do to try to change my love for Egypt, they will not succeed."

Nicaragua captain Juan Barrera, meanwhile, claimed on Twitter he did not vote, despite the fact that his name is listed on FIFA's official documentation.

Records show that Barrera voted for Messi as best player and eventual best coach winner Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool.

"I did not vote in the awards #TheBest2019 any information about my vote is false," Barrera tweeted.

FIFA revealed it has asked the Nicaraguan Football Federation to investigate the matter after receiving "votes signed by the player".

The Sudan Football Association (SFA) also stated its published votes did not correlate to the votes it cast, but FIFA denies this was the case and has asked the SFA to inquire on the matter.