From: ml@vcp1.vcp.monash.edu.au
Subject: FIFA Anonymous FTP sites.
Organization: 
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 08:42:45 GMT

G'day,


I've been thinking (and I do this from time to time :-) ), is there an
anonymous ftp site that stores soccer results?  If there is, does anybody knows
where it is?  And while on the same subject, surely FIFA has a mainframe or two
that stores the results.  Would it not be a good idea if they can be accessed
(say, via anonymous ftp) through internet?  If they aren't, how can we persuade
them to join in the fun.

                                  ******

It is just that I would like to have access to results when it is convenient,
rather than to constantly request on r.s.s. for old results.

                                  ******


The idea I have in mind is this.  One anonymous FTP site is dedicated to
International results.  That is, World Cups (both qualifiers and finals, from
seniors down to U17's), Continental Championships/Cups (European Cups, Copa de
Liberatores (sorry about the spelling), UEFA cup, European Championship, World
Club Cups, Copa America, Asian Cup, African Cup, ect..) and other miscellaneous
internationals (even friendlies).

Then there are anon.ftp sites dedicated to domestic leagues.  eg.  A UK site
(say in London) dedicated the English league, a site in Italy dedicated to the 
Italian league, a site the US, dedicated to... well, no disrespect because of 
the demise of NASL; to one of the American leagues.  You know what I mean.  And
of course because of some the relative interest of each country's competition, 
the sites will have necessary details.  Some may have just the score line, some
others will have score lines, scorers, even lineups and attendance figures,
ect.

Another thing that has occured to me is how will the information be stored?  In
ASCII text files or in some database/spreadsheet format (and it may presumably
be compressed - in what format .ZIP?, .LHA?)?

Also is there anyone who is initially dedicated to start it up, and when the
person leaves the company/institution what mechanisms are there to maintain the
data at these sites?

Well, I'm throwing some ideas and questions about, and it is a bit open ended,
but you can appreciate the scope and the difficulties that may or may not
occur.


Comments please.



My vision:
**********


International site:   site.subdomain.domain.country
     (or preferably 'pele.fifa.com.fr' or something like that!! :-) )

Directory structure:
--------------------
pub/football
   - worldcup - 1932 - *                * - signifies the files containing
               - 1936 - *                    match results.
                  :
               - 1982 - quals - *        Note: with 'quals' (qualifiers) could
                      - finals - *             broken up in to more directories
               - 1986 - quals - *              containing regions (CONCAF,UEFA)
                      - finals - *
               - 1990 - quals - *
                      - finals - *
   - olympics - 1932 - *
                 :
              - 1988 - quals - *
                     - finals - *
              - 1992 - quals - *
                     - finals - *
   - U19 - 1982 - *
            :
          ect
   - Europe - EuroChamp - years.. - quals - *
                                  - finals - *
            - EuroCup - years.. - *
            - CupWinCup - years.. - *
            - UEFA - years.. - *
              ect.
   - SouthAm - cAmerica - years.. - *
             - cLiberatores - years. - *
               ect.
   - CONCAF - whatever  \    My apologies on my ignorance of the formatting of
   - Asia - whatever     >   these areas, but the concept is more or less the
   - Africa - whatever  /    same as above.
   - friendlies - years.. - *
     ect


Domestic sites:  (for example 'Germany'.  Say, 'beckenbauer.dfv.com.de')

Directory structure
-------------------
pub/fussball
   - bundes1 - years.. - *
   - bundes2 - years.. - *
   - pokal - years.. - *
   - amatuerliga - regions.. - years.. - *  (disk space dependent!!)
   - playoffs - years.. - *  (in some years there are playoffs for the
                              'amateurliga' teams to qualify for bundesliga 2
                              and bundesliga 2 teams for bundesliga 1.)
     ect


And, of course, this will vary from country to country.  In some cases, this
will not be easy.  eg. the english league now that it has a premier division
and the likes of Australia in the early to mid 1980s when we had the '1st
division' divided up into 2 'conferences', North and South.  The winners of the
conferences played off for the Championship.  And how far back is site willing
to store?  Some leagues are approaching and have even exceeded 100 years!!!
Now, how many Megabytes is that?  Or is that Gigabytes??!  So you can see the
advantages of having access to the FIFA and indeed the Domestic Authority sites
where they may have the 'structures' in place.


Anyway, enough rambling.  Your opinions, please.



P.S.  DOES R.S.S. HAVE A F.A.Q. LIST????  If it doesn't, isn't about time it
has?  Mailing-lists and e-mail info-bulletins (such as Thomas Hofmeister's
excellent Bundesliga mailing) come to mind.  Others?



Cheers,
Mik.

/*****************************************************************************\
*    Mik Lipcsey, Computer Systems Officer, Victorian College of Pharmacy,    *
*         Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, Australia.          *
* Aarnet:  ml@vcp.monash.edu.au  *  'Open the Pod Bay Door, please, HAL' 2001 *
>*****************************************************************************<
* I am home, I know the way,             \_____---- 'Evening falls...' (1988) *
* I am home, feeling, oh, so far away... /                   Roma Ryan & Enya *
* For so great a treasure, words will never do... ---------- 'Angeles' (1991) *
\*****************************************************************************/
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