The BBC African Footballer of the Year 2008 will be announced during a live edition of Fast Track on Friday, January 16 2009. (1600 GMT BBC World Service). The voting details and criteria are below.
Nomination process for shortlist
The nominations for the five man shortlist were drawn up by leading football experts from each of the 52 countries in Africa. This process began on Monday 03 November and ended on Friday 14 November. The experts were asked to name their three contenders in no order of preference.
They were asked to select their nominations on the following criteria: individual skill; technical ability; teamwork; consistency; impact on results; fair play.
The shortlist will be announced during Fast Track on Monday 01 December (BBC World Service, 1600 GMT). It will also appear on a special World Service website in English, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Somali and Hausa.
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.
Public Voting
Once the shortlist is published, the award will be decided by public vote. The public may vote either online through the websites or by text.
This process will last for six weeks from 1700 GMT on Monday 01 December to 1700 GMT on Friday 09 January.
The number of online votes will be added to the number of text votes and the full list of votes polled by each nominee will be available on the BBC African Footballer of the Year website along with all terms and conditions. In the unlikely event that there is a tie, the award would be shared.
Public vote - Terms and conditions
Voting for the BBC African Footballer of the Year award will be from a shortlist of 5 contenders between 1600 GMT on Monday December 1st and 1700 GMT on Friday 09 January.
The voting will be available online via the BBC African Footballer of the Year website and by text - the number to call for each contender will be revealed on Fast Track on Monday December 1st after 1600 GMT. Charges may vary from country to country so please check with your network provider.
Please be sure you carefully dial only the number of the contender you wish to vote for.
You must obtain the bill payer's permission before voting.
Please do NOT call before the lines open, or after the lines have closed, as your vote will not be counted, but you may still be charged.
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
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, system, server, provider or otherwise which may result in any vote being lost or not properly registered or recorded.
The BBC reserves the right to cancel or suspend voting at any time. In the event of any such cancellation or suspension, a technical failure or any other malfunction with the phone vote, the BBC reserves the right to arrange for the winner to be decided by a contingency arrangement involving the 52 football experts from Africa.
All voting will be overseen by BBC African Productions, BBC World Service Future Media and Technology and by the BBC's Interactive Technical Advice and Contracts Unit.
Definition of who is eligible
People are eligible to win the BBC African Footballer of the Year if they are of African origin.
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.
