England tops UEFA fair play ranking for European teams. Faroe Islands has best-behaved fans

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — England finished top of the fair play rankings for national and club teams in European soccer competitions last season, UEFA said Tuesday.

UEFA’s formula assessed English teams across 241 games played last season which gave an average points total ahead of second-place Slovakia and third-place Finland.

For each game it organizes, UEFA sends a delegate who rates teams in five categories: red and yellow cards, respect for opponents. respect for referees, behavior of team officials, behavior of spectators.

The UEFA rule book suggests positive marks for “helping an injured opponent” and “informing the referee if a corner or throw-in should have gone to the other team,” while marking down for incidents including time-wasting, “play-acting and simulation of injury” plus “provoking a mass confrontation.”

In the rankings of best-behaved spectators, Faroe Islands fans were top followed by Moldova and Kazakhstan.

Albania’s teams and fans placed last in each table of nations whose teams played enough UEFA competition games to be eligible.

Moldova also was the most improved nation in its overall fair play scores, UEFA said.

UEFA awards a prize of 50,000 euros ($58,000) to each of the three winners to donate to “the amateur or professional club of their choice for a fair play or respect-themed project.”

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