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The UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking was used by UEFA from 1995 to the 2015–16 season to grant three berths for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. Since that time it has granted a monetary prize to winning associations.

Qualification system

1995–2008

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 8.0.

2009–2015

The three highest placed national associations in the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking each automatically gained an extra qualification berth for the First Qualifying Round, providing they exceeded the threshold of games played, and had a minimum average score of 8.0. These berths were then allocated to the highest placed club in that association's own Fair Play league that had not yet qualified for either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League.

2015–present

Based upon a UEFA Executive Committee decision, approved in December 2014, from the 2015–16 season onwards, Fair Play no longer grants entry to the Europa League, instead only netting the victorious association a cash prize to be put towards "fair play or respect-themed projects".^[1] It is assessed on three categories: overall fair play, year-on-year fair play (most improved association) and spectator behaviour, with each association being scored and an association being declared the winner for each category. No association can win more than one category, meaning that on receiving one category award, an association becomes ineligible to win either of the other two, with the three categories being ranked in importance so that it can be determined which category takes preference.

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 assessment period was also changed in 2015, and is now from 1 July to 30 June the following year. For the transitional season of 2015–16, the ranking assessment period covered all matches between 1 May 2015 and 30 June 2016).^[2]

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 are divided by the maximum number of points, 40 (or 35 if there are a negligible number 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.

2014–15 final ranking

The ranking below covers matches from 1 May 2014 to 30 April 2015 and is the final ranking.^[3]

The top three associations (Netherlands, England, Republic of Ireland) gained an extra qualification berth for the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round.^[4]

Rank	Member association	Total points	Matches played
1	Netherlands	8.151	110
2	England	8.146	160
3	Republic of Ireland	8.144	66
4	Finland	8.141	68
5	Denmark	8.128	88
6	Germany	8.123	146
7	Norway	8.113	71
8	Iceland	8.089	53
9	Sweden	8.087	110
10	Scotland	8.083	95
11	Spain	8.039	159
12	Austria	8.015	71
13	Northern Ireland	8.003	47
14	Switzerland	8.001	96
15	Belgium	7.967	107
16	France	7.960	115
17	Italy	7.953	147
18	Czech Republic	7.928	75
19	Wales	7.924	52
20	Poland	7.911	72
21	Kazakhstan	7.879	59
22	Russia	7.872	126
23	Faroe Islands	7.868	43
24	Bulgaria	7.864	72
25	Slovenia	7.848	71
26	Israel	7.843	55
27	Lithuania	7.824	55
28	Romania	7.811	80
29	Cyprus	7.790	69
30	Portugal	7.768	128
31	Slovakia	7.765	76
32	Croatia	7.760	86
33	Estonia	7.753	52
34	Serbia	7.749	76
35	Bosnia and Herzegovina	7.742	55
36	Hungary	7.738	68
37	Ukraine	7.700	122
38	Greece	7.694	84
39	Georgia	7.684	45
40	Belarus	7.678	83
41	Moldova	7.642	53
42	Turkey	7.615	90
43	Malta	7.600	45
44	Montenegro	7.592	44
45	Latvia	7.565	49
46	Macedonia	7.500	51
47	Azerbaijan	7.441	59
48	Albania	7.348	38
49	Armenia	7.822	29
50	Gibraltar	7.809	21
51	Liechtenstein	7.767	18
52	Luxembourg	7.720	24
53	San Marino	7.485	24
54	Andorra	6.922	32

Cut-off: 37 matches played

Group 1: 37 or more matches played; Group 2: fewer than 37 matches played.

Winners (1995–2015)

The UEFA Fair Play winners in the rankings by year since 1995 to 2015 were:

Year	Top association	Nominated team	Drawn				References
			Association	Nominated team	Association	Nominated team
1995	Norway	Viking	England	Leeds United	Luxembourg	Avenir Beggen	[5]
1996	Sweden	Malmö	Russia	CSKA Moscow	Finland	Jazz Pori	[5]
1997	Norway	Brann	England	Aston Villa	Sweden	Örebro	[5]
1998	England	Aston Villa	Finland	FinnPa	Norway	Molde	[5]
1999	Scotland	Kilmarnock	Norway	Bodø/Glimt	Estonia	JK Viljandi Tulevik	[5]
2000	Sweden	Norrköping	Belgium	Lierse	Spain	Rayo Vallecano	[5]
2001	Belarus	Shakhtyor	Finland	MYPA	Slovakia	Matador Púchov	[5]
2002	Norway	SK Brann	England	Ipswich Town	Czech Republic	Sigma Olomouc	[6]
2003	England	Manchester City	France	Lens	Denmark	Esbjerg	[7]
2004	Sweden	Öster	Armenia	Mika	Ukraine	Illichivets Mariupol	[8][9][10]
2005	Norway	Viking	Germany	Mainz 05	Denmark	Esbjerg	[11]
2006	Sweden	Gefle	Belgium	Roeselare	Norway	Brann	[12]
2007	Sweden	Häcken	Finland	MYPA	Norway	Lillestrøm	[13][14]
2008	England	Manchester City	Germany	Hertha BSC	Denmark	Nordsjælland	[15][16][17]
Year	Top association	Nominated team	Second association	Nominated team	Third association	Nominated team	References
2009	Norway	Rosenborg	Denmark	Randers	Scotland	Motherwell	[18]
2010	Sweden	Gefle	Denmark	Randers	Finland	MYPA (a)	[19]
2011	Norway	Aalesund	England	Fulham	Sweden	Häcken	[20][21]
2012	Norway	Stabæk	Finland	MYPA	Netherlands	Twente	[22]
2013	Sweden	Gefle	Norway	Tromsø	Finland	Mariehamn	[23]
2014	Norway	Tromsø	Sweden	Brommapojkarna	Finland	MYPA	[24]
2015	Netherlands	Go Ahead Eagles	England	West Ham United	Republic of Ireland	UCD	[4]

Notes:

• 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 5 0 4 Netherlands 1 0 1 Scotland 1 0 1 6 Belarus 1 0 0 7 Finland 0 4 4 8 Denmark 0 2 3 9 Belgium 0 2 0 Germany 0 2 0 11 Armenia 0 1 0 France 0 1 0 Russia 0 1 0 14 Czech Republic 0 0 1 Estonia 0 0 1 Luxembourg 0 0 1 Republic of Ireland 0 0 1 Slovakia 0 0 1 Spain 0 0 1 Ukraine 0 0 1 Total 21 21 21

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 Go Ahead Eagles 1 0 0 17 MYPA 0 3 2 18 Randers 0 2 0

Best performances

The furthest that a team progressed from a fair-play entry was the quarter-finals, achieved by Aston Villa (1997–98), Rayo Vallecano (2000–01) and Manchester City (2008–09), with Manchester City being the only team to have progressed beyond the group stage since this was introduced in 2004–05.^[25]

Winners (since 2015–16 season)

The UEFA Fair Play winners by category in the rankings (with updated format) are:

Season	Overall fair play	Best spectators	Best progression	Prize money	Reference
2015–16	Norway	Estonia	Belarus	€50,000 for each	[26]
2016–17	Iceland	Finland	Georgia	€50,000 for each	[27]
2017–18	Finland	Faroe Islands	Northern Ireland	€50,000 for each	[28]

See also

• UEFA coefficient

References