Editorial Disclaimer

This Editorial Disclaimer ("Disclaimer") explains, in detail, how The Half Spaces is produced, what its bylines represent, how it uses trademarks belonging to football's governing bodies and clubs, how it sources statistics and imagery, and how readers should interpret its coverage. It forms part of, and is to be read together with, our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. By using the Site you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted this Disclaimer.

1. We are independent

The Half Spaces is an independent editorial publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or in any partnership, agency, joint venture, or other commercial relationship with any of the following, or with any of their respective licensees, agents, sponsors, broadcast partners, or affiliates:

• The Football Association Premier League Limited (the Premier League) and the English Football Association (The FA);
• The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, UEFA Super Cup, and UEFA Women's Champions League;
• The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), including the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, and FIFA Intercontinental Cup;
• The Confederation of African Football (CAF), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL), the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC);
• La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Primeira Liga, the Eredivisie, the Belgian Pro League, the Saudi Pro League, the J.League, the K-League, Major League Soccer, the National Women's Soccer League, the Women's Super League, Liga F, or any other domestic competition;
• any individual football club, manager, player, agent, broadcaster, sponsor, or rights-holder.

Coverage of any of the above on the Site is editorial and independent. Where we praise a body, club, or individual, we do so on the merits as we see them; where we criticise, we do so on the same basis. We have no financial relationship with any of the entities we cover.

2. Trademarks and nominative fair use

Names, logos, crests, badges, mascots, anthems, slogans, kit designs, and other indicia ("Marks") referenced on the Site — including without limitation the names and Marks of the leagues, federations, confederations, and competitions listed in Section 1 and the names and crests of every football club we cover — are the registered or unregistered trademarks of their respective owners. All such Marks remain the exclusive property of their respective owners. We claim no right, title, or interest in any such Marks beyond the limited right of nominative editorial use described below.

Use of any Mark on the Site is for editorial identification only: to identify the entity, competition, match, fixture, or trophy that the relevant Content is about. This use is sometimes referred to as nominative fair use — using a trademark to refer to the trademarked thing where (a) the entity in question is not readily identifiable without the use of the Mark, (b) only as much of the Mark is used as is reasonably necessary to identify the entity, and (c) nothing in our use suggests sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation by or with the trademark owner. We rely on this principle, and the equivalent principles of honest commercial use and descriptive use recognised under English, European, and other applicable trademark law.

Nothing on the Site is intended to suggest, and you should not infer from anything on the Site, any sponsorship, endorsement, partnership, or affiliation between The Half Spaces and any trademark owner. If a rights-holder reasonably objects to a specific use of its Marks on the Site, we will modify or remove that use upon receipt of a written objection sent to [email protected]; see the takedown section below.

3. How the Site's coverage is produced

The Half Spaces is produced by a small editorial team using a combination of original tactical analysis, public-domain match data, third-party statistics under licence, AI-assisted drafting tools, and conventional editorial workflow. Specifically:

• Editorial direction, structural choices, source verification, fact-checking, and final approval are made by the responsible editorial desk and the publication's editors. No article publishes without human editorial review.
• Drafting may be assisted by large language models. We treat these tools the way a sports desk treats transcription software, statistical packages, or research assistants — to accelerate work that a human editor then shapes, verifies, and signs off on. We do not represent any AI-assisted drafting as the unaided work of a specific natural-person journalist.
• Statistics, scores, fixtures, league tables, and player metadata are pulled from licensed third-party sports-data feeds and from publicly published competition data. We do not warrant the accuracy of upstream data. See Section 5 of our Terms of Service on accuracy and corrections.
• Quotes attributed to public figures (managers, players, executives, officials) are sourced from publicly available press conferences, interviews, official club or federation statements, broadcast media, and established reporting. Where a quote on the Site appears to misattribute or misquote a public figure, contact us using the corrections mechanism below and we will investigate and, where warranted, correct.
• Tactical analysis, opinions, rankings, forecasts, and Power-Rankings-style outputs represent the publication's editorial judgement at a point in time. They are opinion, not statements of fact about a player's, manager's, or club's actions or intentions. Forecasts are inherently incapable of predicting future events; readers should treat them as opinion only.

4. Bylines and editorial desks

Articles on The Half Spaces are bylined by editorial desks rather than by named individual journalists. The desks — including The Tactics Desk, The Editor's Desk, The Match Desk, The Scouted Desk, The Europe Desk, The Women's Game Desk, The Americas Desk, The Asia-Pacific Desk, and The Africa Desk — are house identities used to organise our coverage by region, beat, and analytical focus. Each desk is described in detail at /about/writers.

Desk bylines are analogous to long-established conventions in print journalism, including the Editorial Board bylines used by major newspapers, the Education Desk / Sports Desk / Foreign Desk bylines used by national broadsheets, and the house pseudonym tradition used by columnists, satirists, and editorial-comment writers. They are not, and should not be construed as, the names of specific natural-person staff journalists.

Where the Site formerly displayed photographic or AI-generated portraits associated with bylines, those portraits have been removed. The Site now displays a desk monogram only — for example "TD" for The Tactics Desk, "EU" for The Europe Desk. The monogram is a design treatment, not a depiction of any person.

If you would like more information about how a particular article was produced — sources, statistical inputs, what was edited, what role AI assistance played — email [email protected] and the responsible desk will respond.

5. Images

5.1 Article cover images

Cover images on article pages are sourced primarily from Wikimedia Commons. Each Wikimedia Commons image is licensed by its uploader under one of several licences (typically Creative Commons Attribution, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike, or public domain dedication). Where a licence requires attribution, we display the photographer credit (and where required, the licence name and a link) in proximity to the image. If you are an image rights-holder and believe an image is being used outside the terms of its licence — including missing or incorrect attribution — contact us using the takedown mechanism below and we will correct or remove the image.

5.2 Player and club imagery

Player headshots, club crests, competition badges, and similar imagery displayed alongside statistics, fixtures, league tables, and competition pages are supplied by licensed third-party sports-data providers and are used solely for editorial identification within the Site. Underlying rights remain with the original photographers, agencies, clubs, leagues, federations, or other rights-holders. We do not download, resell, redistribute, mirror, or republish these images outside of their use within the Site's editorial layout.

5.3 No use for AI training or model development

No image, text, statistic, or other Content on the Site is licensed for use in training, fine-tuning, evaluating, or otherwise developing any artificial-intelligence model, large-language model, generative system, or similar product. Any such use is expressly prohibited and may infringe the rights of The Half Spaces and / or the underlying rights-holders.

6. No betting, financial, or professional advice

Nothing on the Site — including without limitation Power Rankings, Tactical Debate verdicts, World Cup 2026 Predictor outputs, scouting profiles, transfer-tracker entries, match previews, predicted starting elevens, or comment on a player's, manager's, or club's prospects — is intended as betting tips, gambling or wagering advice, financial advice, investment advice, securities recommendations, tax advice, legal advice, medical advice, professional sporting advice, recruitment advice, or any other form of professional advice. Football is unpredictable. Treat all our analysis as opinion, not as a forecast you can act on. Do not rely on any Content for any decision with real-world consequences.

7. Interactive features

The Starting XI Builder, Tactical Debate voting, Tactical Glossary search, World Cup 2026 Predictor, simulator, and similar interactive tools are provided for entertainment and editorial-engagement purposes only. The data they consume — squad lists, fixtures, group-stage assignments, schedules — is published in good faith based on the most recent information available from licensed sources and may be out of date by the time you use the feature. Outputs of the predictor and simulator are illustrative, not predictive.

8. User reliance

You access and use the Site at your own discretion and risk. You are solely responsible for any decisions you make in reliance on Content found on the Site, and you accept that we make no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, currency, or reliability of any Content. See Sections 9 and 10 of the Terms of Service for the full disclaimers and limitations of liability that apply.

9. Takedown / DMCA / rights-holder objection notice

If you are a rights-holder and you believe that Content on the Site infringes your copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property right, send a written notice to [email protected] including all of the following:

• your full legal name, postal address, telephone number, and email address;
• identification of the work or right you claim is infringed (e.g. the registered title, registration number, or description of the unregistered right);
• the URL on the Site where the infringing material appears, and a screenshot if reasonably possible;
• a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the rights-holder, its agent, or the law;
• a statement, made under penalty of perjury where the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the rights-holder or are authorised to act on the rights-holder's behalf;
• your physical or electronic signature.

We aim to acknowledge takedown notices within seven (7) business days and to remove or modify the disputed Content promptly while we investigate. We operate a repeat-infringer policy under which we may, in appropriate circumstances, terminate access to the Site for users who repeatedly infringe the rights of others. Submission of a knowingly false takedown notice may expose you to liability, including under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) where the United States DMCA applies.

10. Corrections

If you spot a factual error in any article — a wrong score, a misattributed quote, a player listed at the wrong club, an incorrect date, an out-of-date statistic, a misidentified photograph — please email [email protected] with the article URL and a brief description of the issue. We treat corrections seriously and will, where the issue is verified, update the article (with a visible "corrected" note recording the substance and date of the correction) within a reasonable time of confirmation.

11. Contact

The Half Spaces · [email protected]