Norway top fair play league

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Norway have taken up the running in the UEFA Fair Play rankings, with associations competing for three places in the first qualifying round of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup.

Current standings
Norway top the current UEFA Fair Play rankings, and would automatically receive one of the UEFA Cup berths if they are still there when the final rankings are released at the start of May. England, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Spain and Estonia are the other seven countries currently in the frame for one of the two places awarded via the Fair Play draw, which will be held at the City of Manchester Stadium on 13 May at 14.30 (15.30GMT), between the pre-match press conferences before the UEFA Cup final.

Cut-off points
The overall UEFA Fair Play rankings will cover all matches played in UEFA competitions between 1 May 2007 and 30 April 2008. The current intermediary list includes matches played up to and including 17 March. For the current standings, only national associations that have played a minimum of 31 games are considered. This cut-off point is calculated by dividing the total number of UEFA matches by the number of national associations.

Positive criteria
The Fair Play assessments are made by the official UEFA delegates following criteria such as positive play, respect for the opponent, respect for the referee, behaviour of the crowd and team officials, as well as cautions and dismissals. Once the UEFA Fair Play ranking is finalised at the end of the season, all national associations that have attained an average of eight points or more will enter a draw to determine which two countries will be entitled, along with the outright winner, to enter an additional team for the UEFA Cup.

Exemplary conduct
The three associations which are allocated an additional UEFA Cup place will enter the club that has won the domestic top-flight Fair Play league. If this club has already qualified for a UEFA tournament, the second-placed team in the domestic competition may be entered - and if they have already qualified, the third-placed team, and so forth. It is even possible for a team who have been relegated to the second division to qualify for the UEFA Cup as a result of their exemplary conduct during the domestic championship, provided they hold the mandatory UEFA club licence. To download a PDF of the current rankings, click 'UEFA Fair Play ranking' in the downloads section in the right-hand column of this story.

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Bodø Glimt once participated in the Uefa Cup when Norway won this a few years back, and Bodø Glimt won the fair play award in the domestic league and were given the Uefa Cup spot. We clocked up a 3-1 aggregate win over Vaduz of Leichtenstein before bowing out

[pires7]

nice guys finish last

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It won't take long for Swannsong to turn that into a Green Day.

[bradley]

nice guys finish last

Not in this contest

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It was 1999/2000 season. Viking racked up an 18-0 aggrgate win in the same round over Principat of Andorra.