So who is the fairest football nation?
Where are scenes like these rarely seen?
and cards are rarely given?
Where is football more like this?
There is a fairness list, so to speak.
The Football Observatory in Switzerland compared 87 countries.
How many cards are given where?
On the „unfair end" plenty of nations from South America.
We don’t wanna go into this, but all these countries
at the bottom of the red card pile are from Latin America.
Why?
The Football Observatory links it to poverty,
the homicide rate
and corruption.
Well, you make up your own mind.
Only so much be said:
Researching for this we found that the antics on a Bolivian pitch
are not as bad as in their parliament.
In this video here we want to see where referees show the fewest red cards.
Where do we find the cleanest football and why is that the case?
So let's go to the other end, the fair end of the table.
Now while we scroll down the card chart, let me say,
of course we know the amount of cards is no perfect measure for fairness.
For example if we reach the top 10
and stop at rank 6 of countries with the least red and yellow cards given
England shows up.
A country where football bullies are admired
and fans love situations like this.
And giving someone a nice elbow nudge is tradition,
so that referees simply don't give cards for it.
Get up and play!
So a lack of cards doesn’t necessarily indicate fairness.
But there are countries in the top 10 where fairplay is part of the football culture.
In the Top 10, of course, you've got countries you would expect there,
Norway, Finland, Sweden, the Scandinavian countries
that annoyingly show up top in every positive statistic.
Happiness,
Wealth,
Human Development
fight against corruption etc.
One can't help thinking that these statistics are connected to our red cards, right?
Then in second place: Malaysia.
Maybe someone out there can tell me why,
because I'm not familiar with Malaysia.
But I am familiar with the top spot.
Japan, the fairest of them all.
And I’m not surprised at all.
My name is Caro and as Kickoff’s local reporter on Japanese soccer
I have noticed that the spirit of football in Japan is different
from that in Europe or South America.
I have been observing the football culture here over a few years now
but not quite long enough to have witnessed the days
of the old Japanese traditional football Kemari.
It’s non-competitive, with all players co-operating
in trying to keep the ball in the air.
Today the J-League has the fewest cards worldwide.
2.56 cards are given per game,
and the chance that a red one is among those is a measly 8 percent.
At the University of Tsukuba, Masaaki Koido forges talents
who regularly make it onto the world's big stages.
Same with the Blue Samurai, the national team.
You’ve seen them at the last World Cup.
Even in defeat they play fair and show grace.
Again, no red cards.
In the 25 World Cup matches Japan has played so far,
they’ve never received a single red card.
And as if that wasn’t nice enough,
to top it off, the fans clean the stadium after the game,
and the team cleans up the locker room.
The world couldn’t believe the niceness.
In Russia 2018 Japan became the first ever nation
to progress to the knockout stages on fair play rules.
Being level with Senegal on points and goals,
it was the yellow cards or better the lack of it that brought Japan to the next round.
Not only the men.
After the Nadesshiko won the World Cup in 2011,
of course they gave them the fair play cup as well.
That can be seen in everyday life.
Japan is an industrial nation with hardly any crime.
A country that can look like chaos from the outside, but no, it isn’t really.
Shudan Kodo, the art of precision walking, describes Japan in a nutshell.
Look at it...
Not one little touch.
A mega-city like Tokyo would not function without mutual consideration.
There is a place for smoking your fag, and you queue up for it beforehand,
and someone will be there to help you do it right.
Japanese society has a reputation for putting group harmony above all else.
Same in football and all sports.
…says Akemi Umegaki, Professor for physical education at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
There is a purpose of course that rules of playing together play such a big role early on.
Sport is meant to prepare for life.
So, football is a school of life, where teachers and referees are respected as a corrective.
But why only punish?
Fair play goes beyond the number of yellow and red cards,
and that's why there's also a green card in Japan.
The little word "kikubari" means „watchfulness“,
but it also includes “to care for someone“, „to be attentive", and "to be prudent".
But as multidimensional Japanese words can be,
more often saying less, is actually saying everything.
This Japanese influencer puts it in a nutshell.
Communication in Japan has a strong non-verbal element.
In a country that is repeatedly hit by natural disasters,
a village couldn’t afford to listen to everybody’s opinion,
and the reconstruction would virtually never start
and life couldn’t go on again.
The good thing, where there is less talking, there is also less swearing.
Because here people also believe that every word can be hurtful.
Every word.
And if you're hurtful, you're not a team player.
And if you're not a team player, it harms your family,
your village, your nation and in the end yourself!
Already this constitution from the 7th century demands
that one should behave harmoniously and refrain from disputes.
And Japan's footballers still somewhat adhere
to the code of the samurai, Bushido, the way of the warrior.
The common cause is so central to Japanese
that a beautiful assist is just as important as the goal itself.
And the opposing team is not seen as "the enemy“
but as friends who want to enjoy the game just as much.
But wait.
It's not that the Japanese have a softy-gene in their DNA.
If they play in other leagues, they adapt, become tougher.
Like Yoshika Matsubara, here in the crowd around the referee
during his active time in the Croatian League.
No chance for him to win a fair play award there.
…something that helps him as the founder of a Tokyo Football academy
and as manager in the J-League, but…
But isn’t all this niceness holding the Japanese back?
This “No violence”, this “don’t jump the fence”?
…something the more successful South Americans would die laughing over?
Will Japan ever get to the top being nice?
And as we have seen, this philosophy seems to work just fine.
Since 1998, the Blue Samurai have made it to every World Cup.
While other nations with much better individual players had to stay home.
Eat this, Italy!