If you’ve ever stood in the stands of a local football league final, or watched a youth tournament’s awards ceremony, you’ve probably noticed something: most medals handed out celebrate goals scored, games won, and overall tournament standing. But every so often, someone will mention “fair play” as a separate award, and for a split second, a quiet question will pop up—are there actual football medals for fair play, or is that just a nice line in a program? As a supplier of custom football medals for leagues, tournaments, schools, and youth programs around the world, I’ve spent the last 12 years fielding that exact question, often from coaches, tournament directors, and team parents who want to recognize the unglamorous but critical work of playing the game right. Let’s break this down—not just as a medal maker, but as someone who’s seen fair play shape football more than any single trophy. Football Medals
First, let’s get the facts straight: yes, official football medals for fair play absolutely exist. They’re not a modern gimmick, either. FIFA, the global governing body of football, has awarded a Fair Play Medal since 1987, as part of its annual Fair Play Awards. Back then, the first recipient was Cameroon’s national team, recognized for their sportsmanship at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, when they consoled the opposing Argentine players instead of celebrating after a controversial match decision that sent them through to the next round. That act didn’t get Cameroon a trophy for winning, or a medal for goals—they got a fair play medal, and it’s still one of the most requested designs we make for national teams and elite international tournament organizers today.
But fair play medals aren’t just for the top global levels. If you’ve ever attended a U-12 local tournament, a semi-pro league in the Midwest U.S., or a grassroots cup in rural England, you’ve almost certainly seen these medals, even if you didn’t notice them. Most national football associations (like The Football Association in England, the US Soccer Federation, or the German Football Association) mandate a fair play award for every league and tournament they sanction. For example, in the English National League System— the fifth to eighth tiers of English football, which feed into the EFL—every season, one team wins the Fair Play Medal, alongside the league’s champion and promotion winners. The criteria aren’t just “no red cards,” either. Tournament directors and referees score teams on a range of factors: shaking opposing hands before and after every match, helping an injured opponent off the pitch, conceding a goal when the referee missed a foul that led to a shot, even verbally supporting referees instead of arguing every call. It’s not perfect, but it’s the closest we have to measuring the “spirit of the game” in a tangible way.
What surprises most first-time customers of ours is how many different types of fair play medals we design, depending on who’s ordering them. A few years back, we worked with a small youth tournament in Oregon that wanted fair play medals that looked and felt just like the ones given to the overall tournament winners. Their reasoning? They didn’t want the team that won by one goal to feel like the only winners. The team that finished third but helped an opponent whose goalkeeper was injured by letting their own player take an early throw-in, instead of holding the ball to waste time, deserved to feel just as celebrated. So we made custom medals with a subtle laurel wreath (the traditional symbol of victory, adjusted to feel fair play-specific) and a tiny engraving that said “Fair Play Champions” instead of “Tournament Champions.” Another order came from a women’s professional league in Brazil, which wanted fair play medals with a space to engrave the name of the team’s most sportsmanlike player, not just the team as a whole. That’s a detail we don’t see for performance medals, usually—because fair play is often an individual act that lifts up a whole team.
I’ve also had to address a common misconception: fair play medals aren’t just consolation prizes for teams that don’t win. About five years ago, a coach from a minor league team in Ohio reached out to us, frustrated. His team had won three games all season, had three red cards, and sat dead last in the league. They weren’t winning anything, and he said most of his players were starting to check out, since the only trophies handed out were for the top two teams. He asked if we could make a small batch of fair play medals for his team, to give them something to play for beyond winning. That order turned into a partnership: we worked with his league’s director to set up an official fair play award for that season, and by the end of the year, his team had cut their red card total in half, helped three opposing teams retrieve lost gear during away games, and won the fair play medal. The next season, half their players came back, and their win total doubled. That’s when I realized fair play medals do more than just recognize good behavior—they change how people play the game.
But it’s not all smooth sailing. There’s often a debate about whether fair play medals are fair, to put it bluntly. A few years ago, I got a call from a tournament director in Texas who was up in arms. His league had given the fair play medal to a team that had a player swear at a referee, but the official hadn’t seen it, so it didn’t go on the team’s disciplinary record. The other team’s coach called to say that was a joke, and half the league’s teams threatened to drop out if the award wasn’t revoked. That’s one of the challenges of designing fair play medals: the criteria have to be clear, and the process has to be transparent. That’s why, when we work with new tournament organizers, we always advise them to build the medal order around a pre-set framework: each referee submits a match report with notes on sportsmanship, a neutral tournament committee reviews all matches at the end of the season, and the team with the highest average score wins. Without that structure, a fair play medal can feel like a cheap afterthought, instead of a meaningful award.
Another point that comes up a lot: fair play awards for football aren’t just for teams. We make individual fair play medals all the time—for referees who go above and beyond to mentor young players, for coaches who handle losses with grace in front of a packed crowd, even for volunteers who bring water to opposing teams on hot days. Last year, we made a set of custom medals for a youth tournament in France that included an Individual Fair Play award, where players nominate someone from another team for doing something sportsmanlike during the tournament. The winner got to hold up their medal in front of the whole stadium, and a 10-year-old player named Lila, who helped an opposing player who’d fallen and broken their wrist carry their bag off the pitch, still posts photos of her medal on her youth team’s social media. That’s the kind of impact fair play medals have that performance medals can’t match—they create stories that stick with kids for years, not just seasons.
If you’re someone who’s ever wondered if your local league or tournament can get fair play medals, the short answer is yes, and it’s easier than you might think. We work with groups of all sizes, from 10-team local rec leagues to national semi-pro tournaments. When we first started, most of our orders were for performance medals—championships, runner-ups, top scorers. But in the last five years, fair play medals have made up 40% of our total orders, and that’s not a coincidence. More and more leagues are realizing that football is more than just goals and wins. It’s about teaching kids to respect opponents, to help each other, to handle defeat with dignity. A fair play medal is a tangible way to say that matters, just as much as scoring a winning goal.
I’ll leave you with a story that sticks with me. A few years ago, we shipped a batch of fair play medals to a small tournament in Wales. The winning team was a group of 16-year-old boys from a town that’s had a lot of economic struggles, and their coach told us after the tournament that half the team had never even finished a full season before. When they won the fair play medal, the first thing they did was pass it around the whole group, each boy holding it for a minute, instead of just keeping it for the captain. That’s the kind of moment no championship medal can capture. A fair play medal isn’t just metal and ribbon. It’s a reminder that football, at its core, is about people.
If you’re a league director, coach, tournament organizer, or anyone looking to add fair play recognition to your next event, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We can help you design custom fair play medals that fit your team’s values, whatever size or level your league is.
Sports Medals References
FIFA Fair Play Awards Archive.
English Football Association National League Fair Play Regulations.
US Soccer Youth Tournament Fair Play Guidelines.
Brazilian Football Confederation Women’s League Award Standards.
Global Art Gifts Co., Ltd.
Global Art Gifts Co., Ltd. is one of the most professional football medals manufacturers and suppliers in China. We are committed to providing high quality customized products with competitive price. Welcome to buy bulk durable football medals in stock here from our factory. Also, pricelist is available.
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