Girish Mahajan (Editor)

UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

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. As of the 2015–16 season it will no longer grant any berths, instead granting a monetary prize to winning associations.

Contents

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.

2008–2015

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.

2015–present

As of the 2015–16 season, Fair Play will be assessed on three categories: overall fair play, year-on-year fair play 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. As of 2015, 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".

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. 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. The ranking assessment period has also been changed from between 1 May to 30 April the following year, to 1 July to 30 June the following year (for the transitional season of 2015–16, the ranking assessment period covers all matches between 1 May 2015 and 30 June 2016).

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

    • 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.

    2014–15 final ranking

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

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

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

    Until 2015

    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

    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.

    References

    UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA