⚽ matchday-mcp

A Model Context Protocol server that gives any MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, …) live football/soccer data — standings, fixtures, results, top scorers and team comparisons across Europe's top leagues.

Built with TypeScript + Zod, backed by the free football-data.org API.

Ask Claude "How is Real Madrid doing this season?" or "Compare Arsenal and Liverpool's recent form" and it answers with real data through these tools.

🔗 Live playground: matchday-mcp-web.vercel.app — an interactive dashboard built with SvelteKit + Svelte 5 that runs on this server's data layer.

Demo

> get_standings  { "competition": "La Liga" }

**La Liga standings — 2025**
 #  Team                         P   W  D  L   GD  Pts
 1  FC Barcelona               38  31  1  6   59   94
 2  Real Madrid CF             38  27  5  6   42   86
 3  Villarreal CF              38  22  6 10   26   72
 4  Club Atlético de Madrid    38  21  6 11   18   69
 ...

Tools

| Tool | What it does | |------|--------------| | get_standings | League table for a competition (position, W/D/L, GD, points). | | get_matches | Matches for a competition, filterable by status and matchday. | | get_top_scorers | Top scorers for a competition. | | find_team | Look up a club by name (country, stadium, founded year, competitions). | | get_team_matches | A club's recent results or upcoming fixtures, with a W/D/L form string. | | compare_teams | Compare two clubs by recent form (last 5) and W/D/L tally. |

Competitions (free tier): Premier League (PL), La Liga (PD), Bundesliga (BL1), Serie A (SA), Ligue 1 (FL1), Eredivisie (DED), Primeira Liga (PPL), Championship (ELC), Brazil Série A (BSA), Champions League (CL), World Cup (WC), European Championship (EC). You can pass a competition by name ("Premier League") or code ("PL").

Quick start (Claude Desktop)

1. Get a free API token at football-data.org/client/register (takes ~1 minute).

2. Add the server to your claude_desktop_config.json:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "matchday": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["-y", "matchday-mcp"],
         "env": { "FOOTBALL_DATA_TOKEN": "your_free_token_here" }
       }
     }
   }

3. Restart Claude Desktop. Ask it about standings, fixtures, scorers or team form.

Works the same in any MCP client. In Claude Code: claude mcp add matchday -e FOOTBALL_DATA_TOKEN=your_token -- npx -y matchday-mcp.

Development

git clone https://github.com/reiorozco/matchday-mcp.git
cd matchday-mcp
npm install

export FOOTBALL_DATA_TOKEN=your_free_token   # required to hit the live API

npm run dev        # run the server over stdio (tsx)
npm test           # run the unit tests (no token needed — fetch is mocked)
npm run typecheck  # tsc --noEmit
npm run build      # bundle to dist/ with tsup

| Variable | Required | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | FOOTBALL_DATA_TOKEN | yes | Free token from football-data.org. |

Design notes

• Zod-validated tools. Every tool input is described and validated with Zod, so the model gets clear schemas and bad arguments fail fast with readable errors.
• Caching + rate-limit resilience. The free tier allows 10 req/min and returns HTTP 429 when exceeded, so the client adds an in-memory TTL cache plus bounded retry/backoff.
• Lazy team index. football-data.org has no team-name search, so the client builds a name → id index across the domestic leagues one league at a time with early exit — a well-known club costs 1–2 requests, not a full sweep. Name resolution is ranked (exact → starts-with → shortest name), so "Barcelona" → FC Barcelona, not RCD Espanyol.
• Off-season aware. In the off-season the API's "current season" already points at the next, not-yet-started season (empty tables), so the default season rolls over in August.
• Pure, testable handlers. Tool logic lives in plain functions returning strings; the MCP wiring is a thin layer on top. The same data layer powers the web playground (source).

Data

Data from football-data.org. This project is not affiliated with football-data.org or any league.

License

MIT © Reinaldo Orozco