18.07.2012, 11:30
The English National Football Archive is supposed to launch on August 1. It will contain the details of all matches of the Football League, FA Cup, League Cup and minor cups.
Annual subscription is set at GBP 32.00 (24 hours subscription is GBP 5.00) so far, which is reasonable enough, BUT...
There is a serious drawback in that users are supposed to view no more than 1000 pages per month. Apparently it does not matter whether these pages are accessed quickly (i.e. spidered) or by normal browsing. This is not an automatically enforced limit, and exceeding it only results in a warning. However, it is certain that any persistent breach and suspicious behavior (such as using multiple accounts to overcome the limit) will result in a permanent ban and possibly legal sanctions.
For comparison, 1000 matches is about two league seasons, seven FA Cup seasons (less for years multiple replays), or 21-23 seasons of a single club (depending on the number of teams in the league).
The cost of the entire operation would be such that, even for a single club, you're better off buying a Complete Record series book (around 20.00 GBP).
Annual subscription is set at GBP 32.00 (24 hours subscription is GBP 5.00) so far, which is reasonable enough, BUT...
There is a serious drawback in that users are supposed to view no more than 1000 pages per month. Apparently it does not matter whether these pages are accessed quickly (i.e. spidered) or by normal browsing. This is not an automatically enforced limit, and exceeding it only results in a warning. However, it is certain that any persistent breach and suspicious behavior (such as using multiple accounts to overcome the limit) will result in a permanent ban and possibly legal sanctions.
For comparison, 1000 matches is about two league seasons, seven FA Cup seasons (less for years multiple replays), or 21-23 seasons of a single club (depending on the number of teams in the league).
The cost of the entire operation would be such that, even for a single club, you're better off buying a Complete Record series book (around 20.00 GBP).