UEFA fair play rankings: celebrating good conduct in football
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
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Everything you need to know about the UEFA fair play rankings, which reward the top-performing national associations with €50,000 towards a project that promotes respect or social impact.
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Every year, the UEFA fair play rankings track positive behaviour among our national associations in both club and international football. As part of our broader push to promote respect across European football, the highest ranked associations are recognised and rewarded for their efforts.
How do the UEFA fair play rankings work?
Each eligible national association is ranked based on their fair play results from both club and national games over the course of each season. This is split into three categories:
- Overall fair play
- Improvement in overall fair play score from one season to the next
- Behaviour of spectators
A €50,000 reward is given to the associations which rank highest in each category.
How are fair play scores calculated?
After each match, a UEFA match delegate consults with the referee to agree upon scores out of ten in each of the following criteria:
- Red and yellow cards (each card subtracts from a team’s starting value of 10)
- Respect for opponents
- Respect for the referee team
- Behaviour of team officials
- Behaviour of spectators (a minimum of 500 home fans or 100 away fans must be in attendance, although exceptional poor behaviour will still be assessed if this threshold is not met)
The overall score for each national association is calculated at the end of the season by adding up the fair play scores from all club and national team matches, and dividing by the total number of matches played.
What is the prize money for?
The three recognised national associations reinvest the prize money into a project which promotes fair play, respect or social impact. This can be run by the association itself, or a professional or amateur club.
Fair play rankings for 2024/2025
The top-performing national associations in 2024/25 were:
- Overall fair play: England (8.527 points)
- Improvement in overall fair play score from one season to the next: Moldova (+0.49 points)
- Behaviour of spectators: Faroe Islands (9.136 points)
Rankings were calculated between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025. Only associations whose national teams and clubs played a minimum 54 matches across UEFA competitions during this period were eligible for the awards. This number was obtained by dividing the total number of matches by the number of participating national associations.
What impact have the awards made?
The fair play awards have contributed to the success of initiatives across Europe.
A more sustainable ground in Sweden
The Swedish Football Association donated its 2023/24 award to Samuelsdals IF as the club transformed its ground into an inclusive space featuring fair play education, ambassadors and signage.
The arena hosts a wide range of activities, including the popular ‘Fredagshäng’, which brings age groups together to play football, eat and socialise for five Fridays a season.
Improved accessibility for fans in Latvia
Inspired by our FootbALL initiative, the Latvian Football Federation (LFF) is using its prize money to improve stadium accessibility for disabled fans and elderly supporters. Working alongside a national disability organisation, the LFF analysed three stadiums in Riga and identified the most important improvements to be made, with work scheduled for late 2025.
The LFF also used the award to run a communications campaign promoting fair play in semi-professional and amateur football, and is in the process of creating a website providing annual insights into fair play across Latvian football.
Embedding sustainability in Spain
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) put their award towards the implementation of a sustainability officer, or ‘Green Agent’. In place from the 2024/25 season, the Green Agent is responsible for coordinating sustainability at major RFEF events, including energy, accessibility, waste management and anti-discrimination measures.