[uf-discuss] Microformats and Football

[Ben Buchanan]

> I´m trying to find information about microformats in sports, more
> specifically football (soccer for the americans). I´m involved in a project
> that will expose lots of data such as match results, scouts, player
> information and the like, and could not help but think about using
> microformats to expose this data.
> Any suggestions or ideas?

Personally I think sports scores are a bit too complex for any
existing microformat. So I can see a case for a "sports results"
microformat... the problem would be how to make it flexible enough!

Each sport reports scores differently, reflecting the way the game is
played. eg. Rugby League is generally just reported as a final score,
while Aussie Rules football is reported with a progressive total from
each of the quarters for goals, behinds and the total points. If a uf
was to report AFL as just the final score, fans would not be happy as
that's not the data that's considered part of results info.

Then you get regional differences even with the same sport, eg. in
Australia cricket scores are shown (wickets)/(runs) but elsewhere
(runs)/(wickets), so you can't just say "3/7" since it's ambiguous
(not counting the fact that some team is having a seriously bad day).

All that aside, I think there is definitely some scope for a uf which
has a way of capturing:
- code/sport eg. Rugby League
- teams or players involved
- name of series/event, eg. "NRL Premiership" or "World Cup"
- round of game (ie. the game's place in a series)
- date of the game
- result (simple "who won")
- score, which would need the greatest amount of sub-types. possibly
the uf should just define an outline, allowing different sports to be
marked up according to standard items and self-defined stats.

eg. the uf could define how many segments in the game, "2" for halves,
"4" for quarters etc. But stuff like tries, tackles, hit-ups, metres
gained, etc should go into a  definition list that the uf just reads
as "stats" and presents dt/dd combinations.

Then there's the different but related item, the all-important
"ladder". Again, every sport is a bit different; but results ladders
do basically come down to a table of team names, rank, competition
points, then often an extra stat like points for/points against to
rank teams with equal competition points.

I do think a uf would be a good idea for moving this information
around! Sports results are often syndicated but it's a constant state
of reinventing the wheel. It'd also be great if definitive sources
could be defined. For example, for the NRL* the official results
published at nrl.com.au are pretty much definitive; so it would be
great for that information to be discoverable.

Just some thoughts anyway.

Although it's tongue-in-cheek, have you seen
http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/archives/hcup_microformat.html ? :)

cheers,

Ben

[*] Go Broncos!
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