Three countries granted extra Europa League place

Norway, Sweden and Finland have all been allocated an additional UEFA Europa League place for next season.

The news comes as part of the announcement of UEFA’s Fair Play ranking, which was topped by Norway, with Sweden and Finland coming second and third respectively.

As a result each country will be granted an additional slot in the first qualifying round of the Europa League to be allocated to the teams that have won their respective domestic top-tier fair play awards.

The ranking is based on all UEFA competition matches played at both club and national team level from May 1 2013 to April 30 2014, and takes into account a variety of criteria including 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.

France narrowly missed out on an additional place as they finished fourth in the ranking, while England rounded off the top five.

The first qualifying round of the Europa League begins on July 3, with the draw taking place on June 23.