The Uzbekistan Football Federation (UFF) has been nominated for the FIFA Fair Play Award 2012 alongside the Guatemalan Football Federation (GFF) and the Turkish club Eskisehirsport.
The side finished as winners of the 2012 AFC Fair Play Association of the Year award. The Uzbeks amassed 498.84 points over the year, 16.37 points more than runners-up Iran as they emerged the victors.
The top prize in Asia came as a testament for the fair play displayed by Uzbek national teams and club sides participating in AFC competitions during the past year, with UFF President Mirabor Usmanov paying tribute to their performance.
"Winning this award gives us a good feeling and I think it's a good evaluation of our football and the positive work," he said. “We will try our best to help the AFC in its cause of promoting Fair Play”.
With Uzbekistan among the hopefuls to win the FIFA Fair Play award, which will be presented in Zurich on 7 January at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala 2012, the UFF boss expressed the commitment he felt to carry forward the positive performance.
"We are more responsible to protect the spirit of Fair Play,” Usmanov concluded. “Fair Play, friendship and respect to the opponents are what we need to teach our players. Inside the field they are opponents but once they leave the field they are Asian colleagues who try to promote the game throughout the globe”
