Source policy

Our confidence labels

We show a plain-language label on developments and story trackers rather than a numeric score.

• Official — announced by a club, league, competition, player or their representative.
• Established reporting — reported by a publication with a documented record of accuracy on this kind of story.
• Reported — reported by a credible publication, without independent corroboration yet.
• Single-source report — carried by one outlet, often an aggregator, with no original reporting behind it.
• Rumour — a claim circulating without identifiable sourcing.

Why we do not score journalists

Public accuracy percentages for named reporters are almost always unverifiable, easily gamed and unfair — a journalist's record on Premier League transfers tells you little about their record on injury news. We assess the strength of a specific report in its specific context instead.

Corroboration

When two publications with no shared ownership and no shared original source report the same development, we mark the tracker as independently corroborated. Two outlets citing the same original report are one source, not two, and we treat them that way.

Denials and retractions

A denial is a development. When an involved party denies a reported claim, that denial is added to the timeline with the same prominence as the claim, and the tracker status changes accordingly.

Linking out

Every original report is linked with rel="nofollow" and opens at the source. We benefit from other people's reporting; the least we can do is send readers to it.