(VOVWORLD) - The Vietnamese national men’s football team led the way in terms of the fair play ranking among Southeast Asian countries during the second qualifying round for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to sports website ASEAN FOOTBALL.
In total, the Vietnamese squad received nine yellow cards in eight matches played during the World Cup’s second round of qualifiers.
They therefore had a fair play points of -9, leading the ranking among the eight national teams of Southeast Asian countries.
Thailand’s national team came in second in the regional fair play ranking with 11 yellow cards and fair play points of -11.
Elsewhere in Group G of the second round of World Cup qualifiers, Indonesia and Malaysia ranked fourth and seventh after being given 13 and 20 yellow cards, respectively.
Most notably, in their 2-1 loss to Vietnam on June 11, up to five Malaysian received yellow cards.
Myanmar’s national squad finish bottom of the rankings with 14 yellow cards, two red cards, and a fair play score of -21.
In recent years, football’s world governing body FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have made fair play one of the ranking criteria, especially in the event that teams finish on the same number of points with the same goal difference.