UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking


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". It is 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.

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).

Criteria

Teams are judged on the following criteria:
The total number of points are divided by the maximum number of points, 40, 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 gained an extra qualification berth for the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round.
RankMember associationTotal pointsMatches played
1 Netherlands8.151110
2 England8.146160
3 Republic of Ireland8.14466
4 Finland8.14168
5 Denmark8.12888
6 Germany8.123146
7 Norway8.11371
8 Iceland8.08953
9 Sweden8.087110
10 Scotland8.08395
11 Spain8.039159
12 Austria8.01571
13 Northern Ireland8.00347
14 Switzerland8.00196
15 Belgium7.967107
16 France7.960115
17 Italy7.953147
18 Czech Republic7.92875
19 Wales7.92452
20 Poland7.91172
21 Kazakhstan7.87959
22 Russia7.872126
23 Faroe Islands7.86843
24 Armenia7.86472
25 Slovenia7.84871
26 Israel7.84355
27 Lithuania7.82455
28 Romania7.81180
29 Cyprus7.79069
30 Portugal7.768128
31 Slovakia7.76576
32 Croatia7.76086
33 Estonia7.75352
34 Serbia7.74976
35 Bosnia and Herzegovina7.74255
36 Hungary7.73868
37 Ukraine7.700122
38 Greece7.69484
39 Georgia7.68445
40 Belarus7.67883
41 Moldova7.64253
42 Turkey7.61590
43 Malta7.60045
44 Montenegro7.59244
45 Latvia7.56549
46 Macedonia7.50051
47 Azerbaijan7.44159
48 Albania7.34838
50 Gibraltar7.80921
51 Liechtenstein7.76718
52 Luxembourg7.72024
53 San Marino7.48524
54 Andorra6.92232

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:
Notes:

By association

By team

Best performances

The furthest that a team progressed from a fair-play entry was the quarter-finals, achieved by Aston Villa, Rayo Vallecano and Manchester City, with Manchester City being the only team to have progressed beyond the group stage since this was introduced in 2004–05.

Winners (since 2015–16 season)

The UEFA Fair Play winners by category in the rankings are:
SeasonOverall fair playBest spectatorsBest progressionPrize moneyReference
2015–16 Norway Estonia Belarus€50,000 for each
2016–17 Iceland Finland Georgia€50,000 for each
2017–18 Finland Faroe Islands Northern Ireland€50,000 for each
2018–19 Finland Faroe Islands Georgia€50,000 for each