UEFA Fair Play ranking

The UEFA Fair Play ranking has been used by UEFA since 1995 to grant three berths for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

Contents 1 Current club qualification system 2 Old club qualification system 3 Ranking 3.1 Criteria 4 UEFA Fair Play winners 5 Notes and references

Current club qualification system

Following rule changes brought in for the UEFA Cup's replacement, the UEFA Europa League, there will be no draw for second and third places. The three highest placed national associations in the UEFA Fair Play ranking will each automatically gain an extra qualification berth for the First Qualifying Round, providing they have exceeded the threshold of games played, and have a minimum average score of 8.0. These berths are then allocated to the highest placed club in that association's own Fair Play league that has not yet qualified for either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League.

Old club qualification system

The highest finishing clubs in the national Fair Play rankings not yet participating in either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League were potential contenders for the three remaining berths. The club from the association which won the Fair Play ranking qualified automatically for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Cup. The two other teams were drawn out of the clubs from the associations that have reached the threshold of minimum games and had a score of at least 8.

Ranking

All representative teams from a football association are responsible for the score of the fair play ranking of that association. This includes matches of all national teams and all clubs in all UEFA competitions. The ranking is composed from 1 June until 31 May the following year. The criteria for the ranking is Fair Play.

Criteria

Teams are judged on the following criteria:

• Yellow and red cards: If no cards are shown the score will be 10. Every yellow card will deduct this total by 1. A red card will cost a team 3 points in the ranking. If the red card is the result of a second yellow card the deductions of the second yellow card will be ignored. But if a player gets a direct red card after he got a yellow card earlier, the yellow card will be counted as a deduction. This score could become negative
• Positive play: e.g. attacking tactics, acceleration of the game, efforts to gain time, and continued pursuit of goals. A team can score a maximum of 10 points and a minimum of 1 point
• Respect to the opponent: e.g. returning the ball to the opponent at a throw-in, helping an injured opponent: maximum 7 points, minimum 1 point
• Respect to the referee: maximum 7 points, minimum 1 point
• Behaviour of the team officials: maximum 6 points, minimum 1 point
• Behaviour of the fans: maximum 5 points, minimum 1 point

NB: this criterion is ignored when the number of fans is negligible e.g. if there are no fans at all or because of penalty that was given by the UEFA

The total number of points will be divided by the maximum number of points, 45 (or 40 if there are a negligible amount of fans), and multiplied by 10 which will result in a score between 0 and 10. The score is calculated to two decimal points and not rounded up.

UEFA Fair Play winners

Year	Winning Nation	Nominated Team	Drawn				Notes
			Nation	Nominated Team	Nation	Nominated Team
1995	Norway	Viking	England	Leeds United	Luxembourg	Avenir Beggen	[1]
1996	Sweden	Malmö	Russia	CSKA Moscow	Finland	Jazz Pori	[1]
1997	Norway	Brann	England	Aston Villa	Sweden	Örebro	[1]
1998	England	Aston Villa	Finland	FinnPa	Norway	Molde	[1]
1999	Scotland	Kilmarnock	Norway	Bodø/Glimt	Estonia	JK Viljandi Tulevik	[1]
2000	Sweden	Norrköping	Belgium	Lierse	Spain	Rayo Vallecano	[1]
2001	Belarus	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	Finland	MyPa	Slovakia	Matador Púchov	[1]
2002	Norway	SK Brann	England	Ipswich Town	Czech Republic	Sigma Olomouc	[2]
2003	England	Manchester City	France	Lens	Denmark	Esbjerg	[3]
2004	Sweden	Öster	Armenia	Mika	Ukraine	Illichivets	[4][5][6]
2005	Norway	Viking	Germany	Mainz 05	Denmark	Esbjerg	[7]
2006	Sweden	Gefle	Belgium	Roeselare	Norway	Brann	[8]
2007	Sweden	Häcken	Finland	MyPa	Norway	Lillestrøm	[9][10]
2008	England	Manchester City	Germany	Hertha Berlin	Denmark	Nordsjælland[11]	[12][13]

Year	First nation	Nominated team	Second nation	Nominated team	Third nation	Nominated team	Notes
2009	Norway	Rosenborg	Denmark	Randers	Scotland	Motherwell	[14]
2010	Sweden	Gefle	Denmark	Randers	Finland	MYPA(a)	[15]
2011	Norway	Aalesund	England	Fulham	Sweden	Häcken	[16][17]

Note:

• Teams that performed the best in a given year when compared to the other two Fair Play qualifiers, either by advancing further or earning more points, are listed in italic

^a) Both Randers and MYPA made to the 3rd Qualification round however MYPA had more wins in the tournament

Notes and references