UEFA Fair Play Standings Released; Scandinavians Are Friendly; Andorrans Mean Bastards.

UEFA’s Fair Play rankings are basically their way of trying to dispel the notion “nice guys finish last”. Here nice guys get an extra bonus…before they finish last in the second team competition rather than win a big fat check for simply showing up to the fancy ball (the Chaaaampioooons). This year three associations/countries will get the chance to enter the “Europa League” instead of the normal two (all three will choose the domestically friendliest club as their rep). That’s three more friendly teams, rather than two. Hooray.

There’s still a long way to go, but UEFA have clued us in to the standings at the halfway point and we’ve learned a few things. Namely Scandinavians are really friendly, much of the British Isles are as well, and Andorra needs to learn them some damn manners.

Here’s how the rankings are determined:

The Fair Play assessments are made by the official UEFA delegates on criteria such as positive play, respect of the opponent, respect of the referee, behaviour of the crowd and of the team officials, as well as cautions and dismissals.

Real scientific stuff.

Here are the standings, and if you have difficulties with the image, the PDF is here.

Norway are the kings of kindness, which is…nice. And they head the Scandinavian train of hospitality, as Norway, Denmark and Sweden all come in within the top six.

Ironic that Denmark, the team that wields Christian Poulsen, would find themselves in the passenger’s seat. Everybody remember this?

Only 18 months ago.

Scotland, Wales and England do the UK proud in the top 10, while Northern Ireland…well, they’re not so far from the bottom.

Speaking of the bottom, if your country is the size of a flea on a map, chances are that’s where your national team is residing, with Andorra bottom by some margin. Must be tough as the overlooked neighbor to the Euro champs.

Now feel free to go down the list and equate each and every country’s friendliness ranking to their demographics and socioeconomic situations.

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Category: World Football