Northern Ireland Women’s U19 captain Emma McMaster has collected a major award on behalf of her team-mates.
Emma travelled to Switzerland to receive the Respect & Fair Play Trophy from UEFA following Northern Ireland’s top ranking in the fair play table at this year’s UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship.
Northern Ireland’s WU19 team finished first in the fair play list at the WU19 Euros with a score of 9.150, while Germany and Scotland finished equal second on 9.125.
At each game during the tournament - it was staged at four venues across Northern Ireland back in the summer - a UEFA match delegate assessed players, team officials and spectators against the following criteria: red and yellow cards; respect for opponents; respect for the referee team; behaviour of team officials and behaviour of spectators.
Each delegate completed a fair play assessment form in consultation with the referee and, where applicable, the referee observer.
At the presentation ceremony at UEFA HQ in Nyon, Emma was welcomed to the stage by Nadine Kessler, UEFA’s women’s football advisor, who praised Northern Ireland for their behaviour during the tournament and on winning the award.
The Northern Ireland captain then received the trophy from UEFA Women's Football Committee chairwoman Anne Rei.
And she subsequently made the draw for the qualifying round for the 2019 WU19 tournament, which will be staged in Scotland.
Emma picked out Germany, Estonia and Kosovo alongside Northern Ireland to contest Qualifying Group 9. The mini tournament will be played in Northern Ireland next October (2-8) with the top two sides in the group going through to an elite round in spring 2019.
Image: Northern Ireland Women’s U19 captain Emma McMaster receives the UEFA Respect & Fair Play Award from UEFA Women's Football Committee chairwoman Anne Rei.
