Fair Play: UEFA will award prize money rather than Europa League places from 2015-16

"UEFA is changing its Respect Fair Play reward criteria from the 2015/16 season - with winning associations being awarded prize money to allocate to fair play or respect-themed projects in their respective countries instead of being awarded places in the UEFA Europa League," announced UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) on 16/02/2015.

Until now, every year (and this will still be the case at the end of the 2014-15 season), the top three nations in UEFA's fair play rankings received one additional place for the qualifying round of the Europa League following season. The fair play ranking is based on observations made at all European matches by UEFA delegates regarding positive play, respect for the opposition, respect for the referee, conduct of the crowd and team officials, as well as cautions and dismissals.

From the 2015-16 season, three fair play rankings will be calculated with a cash prize for whichever country wins each of the three categories: overall fair play, improvement of the overall fair play rating season-on-season and spectator behavior.

"Prize money to…