Sweden top Fair Play rankings

Sweden lead UEFA's Respect Fair Play rankings, based on all UEFA competition matches played at club and national-team levels between 1 May 2009 and 30 April 2010. Click here to see the standings in full.

Taking into account matches up to and including 31 December 2009, pacesetters Sweden, second-placed Denmark and third-placed England head the race for the three additional spots in the first qualifying round of the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League. Only associations that have played a minimum of 26 games feature in the intermediary table; this cut-off point is calculated by dividing the total number of UEFA matches by the number of national associations.

As defined in the 2009/10 club competition regulations, the three extra berths in the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round will go automatically to the three best-placed national associations in the Respect Fair Play rankings, provided they attained an average of 8.0 points or more. The Respect Fair Play assessments are made by the official UEFA delegates, based on criteria such as positive play, respect of the opponent, respect of the referee, behaviour of the crowd and team officials, as well as cautions and dismissals.

Each of the three associations allocated an additional slot in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League will be entitled to enter the club that won its domestic top flight fair-play competition. If that club have already qualified for a UEFA competition, the second-placed team in the domestic fair-play competition may be entered, and, should they also have already qualified, the third-placed side would be considered and so forth. It is even possible for a team that have been relegated to qualify for the UEFA Europa League as a result of exemplary conduct during the domestic championship.

UEFA Respect Fair Play standings