The Fjelstul World Cup Database is a comprehensive, open-source dataset of every FIFA World Cup match (men's and women's) from 1930 to 2023. It is maintained by Joshua C. Fjelstul, Ph.D., and is widely used for sports analytics, data journalism, and academic research.
https://github.com/jfjelstul/worldcup/tree/master/data-csv
Key CSV files in that directory:
import pandas as pd matches = pd.read_csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jfjelstul/worldcup/master/data-csv/matches.csv") Summary print("=== Fjelstul World Cup Database Report ===") print(f"Total matches: len(matches)") print(f"Tournaments: matches['tournament_name'].nunique()") print(f"Years covered: matches['year'].min() to matches['year'].max()") print(f"Total goals: matches['home_goals'].sum() + matches['away_goals'].sum()") 5. Use Cases & Citation Citation (academic): Fjelstul, Joshua C. "The Fjelstul World Cup Database." (2023). DOI: 10.7910/DVN/ARIYTR