Editorial policy

Our mission

GoalWord exists to make a small, well-made football game and a handful of genuinely useful guides. We are not trying to publish the most football content on the internet. We are trying to publish content that a football fan would actually choose to read.

That means fewer pages, more care, and a clear separation between the game, the editorial content, and the advertising.

Player selection

The daily database is curated, not scraped. Players are selected for recognisability, career significance, and a balanced mix of positions, countries, eras, and competitions. We include men’s and women’s football, and we avoid making the game a list of only the most obvious superstars.

Each player entry includes a nationality, position, birth year, club history, competitions, and a signature fact. The clues are generated from those fields. We do not invent a clue to fit a narrative, and we do not change a player’s facts to make a puzzle harder or easier.

Fact-checking

Football facts are checked against public records, competition archives, club histories, and reputable reference sources. We prioritise primary or official sources where possible: competition websites, club records, and national federation pages. For historical claims, we look for multiple independent sources before publishing.

Some facts are inherently time-sensitive: current clubs, transfer status, and honours. We review the database periodically and update entries when a change is confirmed. A player’s current club is not always the club most associated with their career, and the game’s club clue is intended to reflect career associations rather than only the present day.

Guides and articles

GoalWord guides are written for humans. They are not mass-produced landing pages, and we do not publish a new page for every keyword variation. Each guide has a clear purpose: strategy, trivia, culture, or learning the game.

When a guide includes a list, a record, or a historical claim, we try to give enough context to make the claim meaningful. We avoid vague superlatives (“the greatest ever”) unless we are quoting a widely accepted opinion or explaining why the label is contested.

Use of AI tools

We may use software tools, including AI-assisted drafting and coding tools, to help build and maintain the site. We do not publish automatically generated articles without editorial review. Facts, names, dates, and records are checked by a human before publication, and we remain responsible for everything that appears under the GoalWord name.

Corrections

If you spot an error, use the contact and support page with the page URL, the incorrect statement, and a source if you have one. We review corrections and update the page when the error is confirmed.

For player data, we may correct a future puzzle or the underlying database without changing a past result. If an error affects the answer to a live or archived puzzle, we will decide whether to correct the puzzle, annotate it, or leave the historical result intact. Our priority is to be transparent about what changed.

Advertising and independence

GoalWord is funded by advertising. Advertising is labelled and kept in page content, away from the guess controls, the clue panel, and the result card. Advertisers do not choose which players appear in the game, which clues are written, or which guides are published.

We do not accept payment for a positive review, a player selection, or a place in a guide. If we ever publish sponsored content, it will be clearly labelled as sponsored and kept separate from editorial recommendations.

No player photographs

GoalWord uses original abstract illustrations instead of player photographs. This avoids licensing and likeness complications, keeps the site fast, and keeps the focus on the clues rather than on recognising a face. The illustrations are not likenesses of any real person.

Independence and trademarks

GoalWord is an independent project. It is not affiliated with Wordle, The New York Times, FIFA, UEFA, any league, club, player, or competition. Club and competition names are used for identification only. “Soccer Wordle” and “football Wordle” are descriptive terms used by players, not official names.

Contact

Editorial questions, corrections, and permissions: see the contact and support page. See also our about page.