Opta Analyst Lists 174 World Cup Red Cards, With Brazil Leading on 11

Q: How has Brazil, the team with the most red cards, also won the most FIFA Fair Play awards?

There is no real contradiction: Brazil’s red-card record is cumulative across all World Cups, while the FIFA Fair Play Award is judged tournament by tournament. Brazil have played more World Cup matches than any other nation and appeared in every edition, so their all-time total of 11 red cards is partly a function of volume. A team with the most matches can also accumulate the most dismissals over decades, even if it is relatively disciplined in many individual tournaments. The Fair Play Award, by contrast, is not a lifetime ranking. It is given for conduct in a specific World Cup and only to teams that advance beyond the first round. Brazil won it in 1982, 1986, 1994 and 2006 because, in those tournaments, their overall disciplinary record and sportsmanship were judged the best or among the best. The award is also broader than just red cards. FIFA considers yellow and red cards, but also positive play, respect for opponents and referees, and general team behavior, with the final decision made by FIFA’s experts and Technical Study Group. That means a country can have a poor incident in one World Cup and still be exemplary in another. So Brazil’s record reflects two different measures: the most total red cards over the longest World Cup history, and the most editions in which they were judged the fairest team on that tournament’s evidence alone.

1 articles · Updated · The Analyst · Jun 11

174 players have been sent off in men’s World Cup history, and only Rigobert Song and Zinedine Zidane were dismissed twice, according to Opta Analyst’s review.
Brazil top the all-time team list with 11 red cards, while Cameroon’s nine in 26 matches give them the worst rate — a sending-off every 2.9 games; Japan have gone 25 matches without one.
2006 Germany produced a tournament-record 28 red cards, including Zidane’s sending-off in the final and Wayne Rooney’s quarter-final dismissal against Portugal.
Portugal’s 1-0 win over the Netherlands in 2006 remains the most ill-disciplined single World Cup match, with 4 red cards and 16 yellow cards in the 'Battle of Nuremberg'.
World Cup finals have seen only 5 red cards in total, and Marcel Desailly in 1998 is the only player sent off in a final and still to finish on the winning side.