The Guriball newsroom

Who we are

Guriball is an independent football publication written by a small team of supporters. We don't have reporters in the stadium, we don't get press-conference access, and we don't pretend otherwise: our job is to read the game, check the match details against specialist outlets, and write the piece we'd want to read the next morning.

Articles are signed Guriball Newsroom. Where a piece carries a rating, a ranking or a judgement, that is our opinion and it is labelled as such — never presented as data.

How we check a match

Before writing, the match details are assembled from specialist outlets and official channels: the score, scorers and goal times, line-ups, substitutions, cards, referee, attendance and statistics. The sources used in each piece are listed in the Sources block at the end of the article, with links.

Outlets and channels we consult regularly:

• FIFA, UEFA and the competition organisers — official match reports and squad lists
• BBC Sport, ESPN and The Guardian — match reports and line-ups
• Opta-based providers, FotMob and WhoScored — statistics and expected goals
• Club websites — official confirmations, team news and attendance figures

Two rules we follow without exception. A number we cannot confirm does not go in — we would rather publish without the statistics table than publish a figure we couldn't verify. And when sources disagree on a detail (the exact minute of a goal, for instance), we go with the most complete match report and, if the discrepancy matters, we say so in the piece.

What is opinion, clearly marked

Player ratings, "moment of the match" calls, tactical reads and anything under a heading like what comes next are our editorial judgement. They are not statistics, they do not come from a data provider, and they should not be read as such. We only rate players whose performance is actually described in the sources — we don't fill a table for the sake of filling it.

Images and credits

We have no photographer on the ground. The photographs on this site are freely licensed — Creative Commons or public domain, usually from Wikimedia Commons — and the credit, licence and link to the original file appear directly below the cover image.

On a few pieces that aren't about one specific match, the cover is an AI-generated illustration, because no suitable freely licensed photograph exists. In those cases the credit says exactly that, in the same place the photo credits appear. An illustration is never used as the record of a match, a real trophy or a person.

Because freely licensed photography of a match played the day before rarely exists, cover images are often file photos of the stadium, the crowd or one of the players. When that's the case, the credit says so — and if the photo isn't of the stadium where the match was played, the credit says that too.

Corrections

We get things wrong like any newsroom, and we want to know when it happens. If you've found a wrong score, a misspelled name, a statistic that doesn't add up or a badly credited image, write to bolguri26@gmail.com.

What we do next: check it against the source, fix the text and update the article's modified date. When the correction changes the meaning of what was published — not a comma, but a fact — it is logged in a Corrections box at the end of the piece, saying what changed and when. We don't quietly rewrite what readers have already read.

Commercial transparency

Guriball is free and is funded by advertising and affiliate links — if you buy through one of our links we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It has no bearing on what we write about a match: no rating, analysis or headline is for sale. The details are in our privacy policy and terms of use.

Story tips, corrections or partnerships: get in touch. More about the project on About Guriball.