Irish, Dutch and English head Fair Play rankings

The Republic of Ireland head the interim UEFA Respect Fair Play rankings, which are based on 1,613 UEFA competition matches played at club and national-team levels between 1 May and 31 December 2014.

The Republic of Ireland lead the Netherlands and England in the race for the three additional places in the first qualifying round of the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League. The final rankings will be based on the period between 1 May 2014 and 30 April 2015, and will be announced in May.

Only associations whose teams have played a minimum of 30 UEFA matches have been taken into account in the current intermediate rankings. This cut-off point is calculated by dividing the total number of UEFA matches by the number of UEFA member associations.

The 2014/15 UEFA club competition regulations stipulate that three additional places in the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League will go automatically to the three best-placed national associations in the Respect Fair Play table, provided they achieve an average of 8.0 points or more.

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

Each of the three associations allocated an additional berth in the first qualifying round of the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League will be entitled to enter the club that won its domestic top-division fair play competition. If this club has already qualified for a UEFA competition, the second-placed team in the domestic fair play competition may be entered, and so on. It is even possible for a side that has been relegated to the second division to qualify for the UEFA Europa League, as a result of exemplary fair play conduct during the domestic championship.

The interim rankings as at 31 December 2014.