Corrections Policy

The obligation

Errors are inevitable in any publication that works against a clock. What is not inevitable is how they are handled, and at FOOTBALL INSTANT the handling is fixed: the record is repaired in the open, quickly, and without resentment towards whoever pointed the error out. On a beat where a wrong fee, a wrong scoreline or a wrong suspension is repeated across the internet within minutes, that is not a matter of manners. It is the job itself.

Three labels, three meanings

Correction. A factual error is being repaired: a wrong fee or currency, a wrong scoreline or goalscorer, a contract length stated incorrectly, a player attached to the wrong club, a competition rule misquoted, a suspension misdescribed, a quotation that was not what the person said. The article is fixed and carries a note recording what was wrong and what is now right. Nothing is quietly rewritten, and the note stays as long as the article does.
Clarification. The wording was accurate but capable of misleading. On this beat that usually means the status of a move or a decision: a transfer described as done when the clubs had agreed terms but nothing had been registered, a fee quoted as guaranteed when it included add-ons, a provisional squad reported as final, a sanction reported without saying it was open to appeal. The facts held, the precision did not, and a clarification note says so.
Update. Events moved after publication: the move was registered, the appeal succeeded, the fixture was rearranged, the goal was reassigned. Updates are dated and added to the article. A story that was right on the day is not corrected for having been written before the world moved; it is updated so a later reader is not misled.

Typographical and formatting fixes that leave the meaning untouched are made without a note.

Fees, scorelines and disciplinary decisions

Three kinds of error recur on this beat often enough to have their own handling.

Fees. Where a fee we reported as a single figure turns out to be a range, a guaranteed sum plus add-ons, or a figure in another currency, the article is corrected to show the structure rather than a new single number, and the note explains what was wrong with the first version. A fee that cannot be traced to a club, a league or a set of accounts is described as reported rather than stated as fact, and if we failed to do that, the correction says so.
Scorelines and match facts. A wrong score, scorer, card, minute or attendance figure is corrected against the official record as soon as it is confirmed, usually within the hour and always the same day. Where the official record is later amended, for example when a goal is reassigned, the article is updated with the date of the amendment rather than silently changed.
Disciplinary and refereeing decisions. Where we have misstated a sanction, its length, the regulation it was imposed under or whether it may be appealed, the fix goes at the top of the article, because a person’s professional record is involved. If the decision is later varied on appeal, the article is updated to say what changed and when.

A note or a rewrite

Most errors get a note. The wrong figure is replaced in the body of the story, and the note, placed at the top for anything a reader might have acted on and at the end for minor matters, states the original wording, the corrected wording and the date and time of the change.

A rewrite happens when the premise was wrong: the transfer we reported as completed was never registered, the rumour we treated as an agreement came from a party inventing it, the sanction we described was imposed on someone else. In those cases the story is either withdrawn and replaced by an editor’s note explaining what was published and why, or rewritten with a prominent note at the top describing the original claim and what changed. Either way the fact that we got it wrong stays visible. A wrong headline is a serious error in its own right, because headlines travel further than stories, and the note says that the headline was changed.

How to report an error, and how fast we move

Email support@futbolalinstante.com with CORRECTION first in the subject line, and include the article link, the passage you dispute and the reason. The most persuasive reports point at a primary source: the club or league statement, the competition regulation, the written decision, the registration record or the official match record.

Every correction report is read on the day it arrives and acknowledged the same day.
An editor tests the claim against the sources the story was built on and against whatever you sent.
If you are right, the article is corrected, the note goes on and you hear from us. Plain factual errors are usually repaired within hours and never later than one business day after verification. Live match facts are fixed in minutes.
If we conclude the story was right, we tell you why, with the sources.
Where the truth cannot be settled quickly, the disputed passage is flagged as disputed while we investigate rather than left standing as fact.

Errors we treat as urgent

Some errors go to the front of the queue because a person or an organisation is harmed while they stand: the misidentification of a player, an official or a club, a wrong disciplinary outcome, an allegation attached to the wrong person, a wrong injury claim, a wrong fixture or venue that could send someone to the wrong place, and any suggestion of wrongdoing our sources do not support. These are examined the moment they are seen, the note goes at the top however small the fix looks, and where someone has been misidentified we contact them directly where we can.

Lines we do not cross

We do not delete accurate reporting because a club, a league, an agent or a player would prefer it gone. Removal happens only where the law demands it or where an article is wrong beyond repair, and in the second case a note records that the article existed and why it went.
We do not let money near the record. No payment, no advertising and no promise of either changes what a correction says, and the wall described on our ownership and funding page stands at full height here.
We do not trade a correction for access. Losing an interview, a briefing or an accreditation is a price we will pay; leaving a false statement on the site is not.
We do not penalise a writer for reporting their own mistake. Punishing honesty buys silence, and silence turns small errors into large ones.

The correction log

Each correction and clarification goes into an internal log recording the story, the mistake, the fix, who reported it and when. The log is reviewed for patterns, because an error that keeps recurring, a fee reported without its structure, say, or an agreement reported as a completed transfer, is a process failure rather than bad luck, and process failures are fixed in the process. Several rules in our fact-checking policy exist because the log demanded them. If you see something wrong, say so, and if you are right, the page will show it.