I've been quiet over the past week, but I've been busy with debugging the implementation of my database and completing its documentation.  I've reached a point where I've verified the integrity of the tables and can say that the database design is close enough to a "release" version — version 1.0.  It's been a long process, and it's not the end or the beginning of the end, but perhaps the end of the beginning.  If you want to read about my progress with the database, you can read the posts in the Soccer Database Development category going back to September of last year.

So now I present the specification document for my Football (Soccer) Match Result Database.  It incorporates a relational database design and captures only match result data because those are the data that are often freely available and not always subject to legal protection (especially in Europe).  At some point I will extend the database to account for other data within the match (shots, non-bookable fouls, corners, tackles, etc.), but it's low on my priority list right now.  I know that there are other databases out there, but I wanted to make my own contribution and present my vision of a suitable result database for quantitative research.  At the current time the database design covers matches that take place in a league — I assumed a domestic club league, but it can also capture data from a league composed of national teams (i.e. World Cup or continental qualifiers).

The document is linked below.  I have already identified areas for improvement and extension, and I will present them in a future post.

Download Fmrd_specs_v1p0p0.pdf