The English club, Manchester City FC, have earned the right to enter the qualifying round of the 2003/2004 UEFA Cup, after England finished top of the UEFA Fair Play ranking for the 2002/2003 campaign.

Although fifth in their domestic fair play competition, Manchester City FC were proposed by the Football Association as Manchester United FC, Newcastle United FC, Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC have already qualified for either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Cup next season.

Nine other associations finished the season with a Fair Play rating of 8 or more: Sweden, Finland, France, Denmark, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, Norway and Republic of Ireland.

These nine associations will now go into a draw on 6 June 2003 before the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship 2004 qualifying match Switzerland v Russia in Fribourg, Switzerland (19:00 CET) to determine the remaining two places. The two associations successful in this draw will also be entitled to an extra place each in the qualifying round of the 2003/2004 UEFA Cup.

The Fair Play coefficient is based 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. All UEFA competition matches are taken into account for the calculation of the Fair Play coefficient.

The other clubs nominated by their associations and who will go into the UEFA Fair Play draw are:

Sweden have yet to inform UEFA of their national fair play results and will therefore enter the draw as ‘Sweden’.

FF Jaro, runners-up in Finland’s fair play competition to UEFA Champions League qualifiers HJK Helsinki.

France have yet to inform UEFA of their national fair play results and will therefore enter the draw as ‘France’.

The Danish league season runs until 22 June. Therefore they enter the draw as ‘Denmark’.

FC Shinnik Yaroslavl, winners of Russia’s domestic fair play competition.

Poland, where the season is still underway will enter the draw as ‘Poland’.

FC Aarau, winners of the Swiss fair play competition.

Viking FK, who were runners-up in the Norwegian fair play table to UEFA Champions League qualifiers Rosenborg BK.

Cork City FC, third in the Republic of Ireland’s fair play ranking. First and second placed Bohemian FC and Derry City FC have already qualified for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup respectively.

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