FPDSFootball Player Data Standard

Draft v0.1.0. Nothing is stable yet. Breaking changes are expected before version 1.0.

A player submission should say who claimed what.

FPDS is a free, open standard for player submissions. A player submission is the information that an agent, an intermediary or a player sends to a club about a player.

FPDS gives every submission the same structure. Every figure has its context, and every claim shows who made it. A club can then read a submission in seconds, compare it with others, and see what it can check.

The problem

Today, most submissions are free text in an email or a message:

“Good lad, played in X league, 10 goals, plays centre mid, available now.”

A club cannot use this message without more questions:

  • Ten goals in how many minutes?
  • Centre mid as a 6, an 8 or a 10?
  • Is the player under contract, and until when?
  • Does the sender have a mandate to offer the player?
  • Who says so?

The goal

  • Clubs get information that they can use.The same fields in the same format from every sender, with minutes for every output and a source for every claim.
  • Agents and players get taken seriously.A clear, complete submission gets read. A submission that shows its sources gets trust.
  • Software can read and write it.Agency tools, scouting platforms and club systems can all use the same open format, without a licence fee.
  • Player data is shared with care.FPDS contains no medical records, and it marks every submission about a minor.

What a club sees

Tomasz WojcikCM · 17 April 2003 · Widzew Łódź
Contract expires
30 June 2027Verified · FIFA TMS
Minutes, 2025/26
2,418Data provider · Wyscout
Goals, 2025/26
10Data provider · Wyscout
Assists, 2025/26
6Stated by agent
Also plays
CDM, CAMStated by agent
Mandate
ExclusiveStated by agent · licence POL-2024-01188

The same submission, with the source of each value shown. Three of these values come from a source that you can check. Three come only from the agent. A recruitment analyst sees the difference in less than a second. If an interface shows a verified figure and an unverified figure in the same way, the format has no purpose.

How it works

  1. Create the submissionUse the free builder on this site, or software that supports FPDS. The builder runs in your browser, and your information stays on your device.
  2. Send the fileThe builder makes a file that ends with .fpds.json. Send it by email or message, as you send a PDF now.
  3. The club reads itThe club opens the file in the free viewer on this site, or in software that supports FPDS. The viewer shows the player, the source of each value, and any problems with the file. The file never leaves the browser.

Open consultations

FPDS starts small. New fields enter the standard only after agents, clubs and players give their opinion. Each consultation takes about three minutes.

An open standard

FPDS is free to use. The specification and the schema have open licences, and nobody needs permission to build software for it. FPDS starts small, and new fields enter it only after a public consultation with agents, clubs and players.

What FPDS is not

  • Not a protocol. It defines the structure of a document, not how two systems exchange it. A submission can travel by email, API, file transfer or message.
  • Not a registry. It does not tell you whether a claim is true. It tells you who made the claim.
  • Not a replacement for FIFA TMS. Where FPDS and FIFA TMS use the same concept, FPDS follows FIFA.

For software providers

The schema is at a permanent URL. The TypeScript library validates documents and gives messages in plain English. The conformance suite tests any implementation.

pip install check-jsonschema
check-jsonschema \
  --schemafile https://fpds.football/schema/v0.1/player.json \
  submission.json

Some rules are not in the schema. Section 13.1 of the specification lists them.