Data methodology

How CupSchedule verifies schedules and kickoff times

CupSchedule publishes competition data only when a source can be identified, its update state can be recorded, and the visible page can disclose meaningful coverage limits.

Source selection

Sources are evaluated in this order: the official competition site, the governing federation, a licensed data provider, a reputable secondary source, and finally a clearly labeled manual staging seed. Production pages identify their source and verification time.

Refresh and verification

Importers preserve the source timestamp, normalize teams and match states, and run fixture-based regression checks. A source can be authoritative while an adapter is still incomplete, so source authority and coverage status are reported separately.

Kickoff-time conversion

Match UTC is the stored authority. Pages render a UTC or GMT reference in their initial HTML, then convert scheduled times to the GMT offset selected by the visitor. CupSchedule does not invent an unconfirmed kickoff time; postponed, cancelled, or unconfirmed matches retain an explicit status.

Conflicts and corrections

When sources disagree, the governing competition or federation takes precedence. The newer value is not accepted merely because it was fetched later. Corrections should retain the prior snapshot, the source used, and the reason for the change.

Coverage labels

Competition pages state which fields are available, such as fixtures, results, standings, teams, or scorers. Missing fields are treated as unknown rather than zero. Planning-only competitions remain directory entries and do not receive thin standalone pages.

Current production sources