# Stage 4: How do you verify MLS, NWSL and women’s competition coverage?


**Audit competition-season-modality combinations against an independent match inventory.** “Competition covered” is not the same as “the evidence needed for this task is available in this package”.

Hudl’s Wyscout FAQ expressly says that coverage and historical depth vary by competition and package, and that availability timing depends on competition and rights agreements. That makes an entitlement-level test more useful than a catalogue count. ([hudl.com](https://www.hudl.com/products/wyscout/faq))

### Step 4.1: Freeze the required population

Choose the competitions and seasons the club actually needs. For an NWSL project, possible targets include NWSL, NCAA Division I women’s soccer, WSL, Liga F and Liga MX Femenil. **These are evaluation targets, not claims that any named supplier covers them.**

For each target, specify:

- Competition identity, gender, age group, season and stage.
- Audit cut-off date and time.
- Required evidence modalities and fields.
- The club’s acceptable delivery deadline after a match.
- Historical depth and required continuity across player transfers.
- Critical matches or players that cannot be omitted.

For NWSL, the league’s official schedule provides the starting fixture reference. This review did not extract and reconcile its complete match inventory, so no platform completeness percentage is claimed here. ([nwslsoccer.com](https://www.nwslsoccer.com/schedule/regular-season))

For NCAA and overseas competitions, obtain the relevant official schedules/results and resolve naming or stage differences before counting. If no authoritative denominator can be established, publish an inventory and exceptions—not a completeness percentage.

### Step 4.2: Separate scope, entitlement and delivery failures

Use distinct statuses:

| Status | Meaning in this audit | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Outside supplier offering | Required evidence is not offered | Record a capability gap |
| Offered but not licensed | Evidence exists outside the proposed package | Obtain an expanded quote or reject the scope |
| Licensed but not delivered | Expected evidence cannot be accessed | Raise a documented exception |
| Delivered late | Evidence arrived after the required deadline | Record lateness against club needs and contractual promises separately |
| Present but unusable | Wrong match, truncated footage, missing fields or other failed criteria | Record the specific defect |
| Verified usable | Inspected evidence meets the defined test | Preserve the result and scope |
| Not tested | No inspection completed | Do not mark green |

Maintain separate columns for full-match video, clips, event fields, physical/tracking-derived fields and player histories. Only calculate combined usability when the relevant modalities can be linked for the same match/player.

### Step 4.3: Use the right denominator

Recommended definition:

`Required-match usability = usable required matches / eligible completed matches in the club’s required scope`

Define eligibility before inspection. Exclude future matches, cancelled fixtures and matches whose club-defined delivery deadline has not yet passed; record each exclusion. Do not remove an inconvenient match simply because a supplier omitted it from its catalogue.

Also report completeness **within the quoted licensed scope**. Keeping these two measures separate prevents a narrow package from appearing complete while failing the club’s broader requirement.

If the denominator is zero or unknown, report **not calculable**, not 100%.

**Illustrative arithmetic only:** 18 usable matches from 20 eligible required matches is 90%. That result can still fail the purchase if the two unavailable matches contain the only recent evidence for a priority target.

### Step 4.4: Inspect usability, not just file presence

For video, test identity, playback, relevant match periods, player visibility and usable timestamps. Distinguish full-match footage from highlights and distinguish playable content from contractually permitted export.

For data, inspect required fields, minutes, missingness, definitions and identity continuity. Treat missing values as missing unless the supplier’s definition justifies another interpretation.

A compact coverage workbook should contain:

`Competition | Season | Stage | Match ID | Fixture source | Played date | Required by | Supplier/package | Modality | Availability timestamp | Inspection result | Defect | Ticket | Retest date`

Inspect metadata across the full available inventory where authorised. For manual checks, stratify across teams, dates and player types rather than selecting only famous players or recent showcase matches. State exactly which population was inspected and which was sampled.

### What needs an additional women’s football test?

Ask for the **actual metric definitions and comparison population** used for women’s data, including version history. SkillCorner described recalibrated women-specific physical metrics on June 11, 2026 and published a related webinar page on October 21, 2026. These are supplier descriptions, not independent proof of predictive superiority; they make threshold version and historical comparability concrete trial questions. ([skillcorner.com](https://www.skillcorner.com/us/articles/dedicated-physical-metrics-for-womens-football))

Require answers to:

- Which thresholds and reference groups produced these rankings?
- Were historical seasons recalculated after a model change?
- Are women’s competitions directly represented in validation?
- Which fields are measured, inferred or unavailable?
- Does a player’s history survive transfers and changes in name representation?
- Are goalkeeper and outfield evaluations separately appropriate?

Do not allow a successful men’s demonstration to satisfy a women’s-data acceptance test.