# 12. Can free football data replace paid scouting subscriptions?


**Use free data to prototype and evaluate methods, but do not assume it fulfils a live recruitment requirement.** On 27 May 2026, Hudl released historical women’s event data covering the 2023 NWSL season and 2023/24 WSL, Serie A Women, Frauen-Bundesliga and Liga F seasons. Those seasons are not current 2026 coverage. ([hudl.com](https://www.hudl.com/blog/statsbomb-free-womens-data-wsl-ligaf-bundesliga-seriea-nwsl?utm_source=openai))

The official open-data repository organises competition-season, match, event and line-up files and provides 360 data for selected matches. It also includes licence material and attribution instructions. ([github.com](https://github.com/statsbomb/open-data))

Recommended uses, subject to the applicable licence:

- Developing ingestion and quality-checking workflows.
- Testing role definitions before procuring additional coverage.
- Reproducing historical analyses.
- Training analysts to document assumptions and missing evidence.

Before operational use, check:

1. Does the dataset cover the relevant season and player population?
2. Are all required matches and fields present?
3. Is there an ongoing update commitment?
4. Are video and integration requirements separately satisfied?
5. Does the licence permit the intended club, commercial and modelling use?

**Free to access is not a complete procurement specification.** This review did not establish blanket permission for every professional-club use of every open dataset; have the applicable terms checked rather than extrapolating from the download being public.