UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking

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

Current club qualification system

The three highest placed national associations in the UEFA Respect 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 Cup 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 May until 30 April 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 5 points, minimum 1 point
• Respect to the referee: maximum 5 points, minimum 1 point
• Behaviour of the team officials: maximum 5 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, 40 (or 35 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.

Current ranking

The ranking below covers matches from 1 May to 31 December 2014.^[1]

The final ranking at the end of the 2014–15 season will be used to determine the three associations that gain an extra qualification berth for the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League First Qualifying Round.

Rank	Member association	Total points	Matches played
1	Republic of Ireland	8.235	55
2	Netherlands	8.173	85
3	England	8.171	120
4	Finland	8.122	55
5	Denmark	8.106	67
6	Germany	8.099	106
7	Spain	8.097	116
8	Norway	8.092	55
9	Iceland	8.072	46
10	Austria	8.054	56
11	Sweden	8.053	90
12	Scotland	8.050	75
13	Northern Ireland	8.008	40
14	Switzerland	8.008	76
15	Italy	7.957	100
16	Russia	7.936	97
17	Poland	7.902	60
18	France	7.888	83
19	Belgium	7.880	78
20	Faroe Islands	7.877	39
21	Kazakhstan	7.852	53
22	Bulgaria	7.850	67
23	Wales	7.840	44
24	Czech Republic	7.835	59
25	Lithuania	7.800	45
26	Romania	7.774	67
27	Portugal	7.758	106
28	Cyprus	7.750	65
29	Israel	7.747	47
30	Estonia	7.744	48
31	Ukraine	7.735	94
32	Croatia	7.732	76
33	Hungary	7.727	58
34	Slovakia	7.710	63
35	Slovenia	7.707	61
36	Bosnia and Herzegovina	7.705	48
37	Serbia	7.699	63
38	Greece	7.692	74
39	Malta	7.686	38
40	Belarus	7.675	73
41	Georgia	7.595	32
42	Turkey	7.568	74
43	Moldova	7.540	45
44	Montenegro	7.476	40
45	Latvia	7.456	39
46	Macedonia	7.446	47
47	Azerbaijan	7.408	49
48	Albania	7.316	33
49	Gibraltar	7.915	17
50	Armenia	7.764	22
51	Liechtenstein	7.660	16
52	Luxembourg	7.551	20
53	San Marino	7.439	20
54	Andorra	6.903	24

Cut-off: 30 matches played
Group 1: 30 or more matches played; Group 2: fewer than 30 matches played.

UEFA Fair Play winners

Year	Top association	Nominated team	Drawn				Notes
			Association	Nominated team	Association	Nominated team
1995	Norway	Viking	England	Leeds United	Luxembourg	Avenir Beggen	[2]
1996	Sweden	Malmö	Russia	CSKA Moscow	Finland	Jazz Pori	[2]
1997	Norway	Brann	England	Aston Villa	Sweden	Örebro	[2]
1998	England	Aston Villa	Finland	FinnPa	Norway	Molde	[2]
1999	Scotland	Kilmarnock	Norway	Bodø/Glimt	Estonia	JK Viljandi Tulevik	[2]
2000	Sweden	Norrköping	Belgium	Lierse	Spain	Rayo Vallecano	[2]
2001	Belarus	Shakhtyor	Finland	MYPA	Slovakia	Matador Púchov	[2]
2002	Norway	SK Brann	England	Ipswich Town	Czech Republic	Sigma Olomouc	[3]
2003	England	Manchester City	France	Lens	Denmark	Esbjerg	[4]
2004	Sweden	Öster	Armenia	Mika	Ukraine	Illichivets Mariupol	[5][6][7]
2005	Norway	Viking	Germany	Mainz 05	Denmark	Esbjerg	[8]
2006	Sweden	Gefle	Belgium	Roeselare	Norway	Brann	[9]
2007	Sweden	Häcken	Finland	MYPA	Norway	Lillestrøm	[10][11]
2008	England	Manchester City	Germany	Hertha Berlin	Denmark	Nordsjælland[12]	[13][14]
Year	Top association	Nominated team	Second association	Nominated team	Third association	Nominated team	Notes
2009	Norway	Rosenborg	Denmark	Randers	Scotland	Motherwell	[15]
2010	Sweden	Gefle	Denmark	Randers	Finland	MYPA(a)	[16]
2011	Norway	Aalesund	England	Fulham	Sweden	Häcken	[17][18]
2012	Norway	Stabæk	Finland	MYPA	Netherlands	Twente	[19]
2013	Sweden	Gefle	Norway	Tromsø	Finland	Mariehamn	[20]
2014	Norway	Tromsø	Sweden	Brommapojkarna	Finland	MYPA	[21]

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

Most wins

By association Rank Association 1st 2nd 3rd 1 Norway 8 2 3 2 Sweden 7 1 2 3 England 3 4 0 4 Scotland 1 0 1 5 Belarus 1 0 0 6 Finland 0 4 4 7 Denmark 0 2 3 8 Belgium 0 2 0 Germany 0 2 0 10 Armenia 0 1 0 France 0 1 0 Russia 0 1 0 13 Czech Republic 0 0 1 Estonia 0 0 1 Luxembourg 0 0 1 Netherlands 0 0 1 Slovakia 0 0 1 Spain 0 0 1 Ukraine 0 0 1

By team Rank Team 1st 2nd 3rd 1 Gefle 3 0 0 2 Brann 2 0 1 3 Manchester City 2 0 0 Viking 2 0 0 5 Tromsø 1 1 0 6 Aston Villa 1 1 0 7 Häcken 1 0 1 Malmö 1 0 0 Kilmarnock 1 0 0 Norrköping 1 0 0 Shakhtyor 1 0 0 Öster 1 0 0 Rosenborg 1 0 0 Aalesund 1 0 0 Stabæk 1 0 0 Brommapojkarna 1 0 0 17 MYPA 0 3 2 18 Randers 0 2 0

Future

The UEFA Executive Committee approved in December 2014 changes to the rewards given according to the Respect Fair Play ranking, and starting from the 2016–17 season, the three Fair Play berths will no longer be allocated to the Europa League.^[22] Instead, a financial bonus will be paid by UEFA to the best Fair Play association, the most improved association, and the association with the best behaved spectators.^[23][24]

See also

• UEFA coefficient

References