Common Data Format (CDF): A Standardized Format for Match-Data in Football (Soccer)

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Anzer, Gabriel, Arnsmeyer, Kilian, Bauer, Pascal, Bekkers, Joris, Brefeld, Ulf, Davis, Jesse, Evans, Nicolas, Kempe, Matthias, Robertson, Samuel J, Smith, Joshua Wyatt, Van Haaren, Jan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908496086171648
author Anzer, Gabriel
Arnsmeyer, Kilian
Bauer, Pascal
Bekkers, Joris
Brefeld, Ulf
Davis, Jesse
Evans, Nicolas
Kempe, Matthias
Robertson, Samuel J
Smith, Joshua Wyatt
Van Haaren, Jan
author_facet Anzer, Gabriel
Arnsmeyer, Kilian
Bauer, Pascal
Bekkers, Joris
Brefeld, Ulf
Davis, Jesse
Evans, Nicolas
Kempe, Matthias
Robertson, Samuel J
Smith, Joshua Wyatt
Van Haaren, Jan
contents During football matches, a variety of different parties (e.g., companies) each collect (possibly overlapping) data about the match ranging from basic information (e.g., starting players) to detailed positional data. This data is provided to clubs, federations, and other organizations who are increasingly interested in leveraging this data to inform their decision making. Unfortunately, analyzing such data pose significant barriers because each provider may (1) collect different data, (2) use different specifications even within the same category of data, (3) represent the data differently, and (4) delivers the data in a different manner (e.g., file format, protocol). Consequently, working with these data requires a significant investment of time and money. The goal of this work is to propose a uniform and standardized format for football data called the Common Data Format (CDF). The CDF specifies a minimal schema for five types of match data: match sheet data, video footage, event data, tracking data, and match meta data. It aims to ensure that the provided data is clear, sufficiently contextualized (e.g., its provenance is clear), and complete such that it enables common downstream analysis tasks. Concretely, this paper will detail the technical specifications of the CDF, the representational choices that were made to help ensure the clarity of the provided data, and a concrete approach for delivering data in the CDF. This represents Version 1.0.0 of the CDF.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_15820
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Common Data Format (CDF): A Standardized Format for Match-Data in Football (Soccer)
Anzer, Gabriel
Arnsmeyer, Kilian
Bauer, Pascal
Bekkers, Joris
Brefeld, Ulf
Davis, Jesse
Evans, Nicolas
Kempe, Matthias
Robertson, Samuel J
Smith, Joshua Wyatt
Van Haaren, Jan
Databases
Artificial Intelligence
During football matches, a variety of different parties (e.g., companies) each collect (possibly overlapping) data about the match ranging from basic information (e.g., starting players) to detailed positional data. This data is provided to clubs, federations, and other organizations who are increasingly interested in leveraging this data to inform their decision making. Unfortunately, analyzing such data pose significant barriers because each provider may (1) collect different data, (2) use different specifications even within the same category of data, (3) represent the data differently, and (4) delivers the data in a different manner (e.g., file format, protocol). Consequently, working with these data requires a significant investment of time and money. The goal of this work is to propose a uniform and standardized format for football data called the Common Data Format (CDF). The CDF specifies a minimal schema for five types of match data: match sheet data, video footage, event data, tracking data, and match meta data. It aims to ensure that the provided data is clear, sufficiently contextualized (e.g., its provenance is clear), and complete such that it enables common downstream analysis tasks. Concretely, this paper will detail the technical specifications of the CDF, the representational choices that were made to help ensure the clarity of the provided data, and a concrete approach for delivering data in the CDF. This represents Version 1.0.0 of the CDF.
title Common Data Format (CDF): A Standardized Format for Match-Data in Football (Soccer)
topic Databases
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.15820