Finland currently top of UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking

002 - Three UEFA Europa League places available

UEFA’s Respect Fair Play ranking, based on all UEFA competition matches played, at both club and national team level, from 1 May 2013 to 30 April 2014, is currently headed by Finland.

Taking into account the 1,597 UEFA matches played up to 31 December 2013, leader Finland, second-placed Norway and third-placed Sweden are leading the race for the three additional slots to the first qualifying round of the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League.

For the current intermediate ranking, only associations having played a minimum of 30 matches are taken into account. This cut-off point is calculated by dividing the total number of UEFA matches by the number of UEFA member associations.

As defined in the club competition regulations, the three places in the UEFA Europa League will automatically go to the three best-placed national associations in the Respect Fair Play ranking, 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 the team officials, as well as cautions and dismissals.

Each of the three associations allocated an additional place in the first qualifying round of the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League will be entitled to enter the club that has won their domestic top-division fair play competition. If this club has already qualified for a UEFA club competition, the second-placed team in the domestic fair play competition may be entered, and, should they also have already qualified, the third-placed team would be considered and so forth. It is even possible for a team that has been relegated to the second highest division to qualify for the UEFA Europa League, as a result of its exemplary fair play conduct during the domestic championship.

The final UEFA Respect fair play rankings will be published in May 2014.