Purpose
To measure the media operation as an institution, not as an account on a platform. The index answers a single question:
The index does not measure a club’s popularity, its sporting results, or its spending.
Scope
| Category | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Roshn League clubs | Fixed per edition season | First category |
| Yellow League clubs | Fixed per edition season | Second category |
| Sports federations | List enumerated and approved before measurement | Separate category |
Ranking rule: three separate tables are published; categories are never mixed into one ranking because their work differs in kind. Alongside them, a combined clubs-only table brings both leagues together.
International references
The index does not measure by SPOMEXA’s opinion. It adapts established references:
| Reference | What we take from it |
|---|---|
| Barcelona Principles 4.0 AMEC | The chain: objectives → outputs → outtakes → outcomes → impact, and the principle that outcomes matter more than outputs without voiding their value |
| Integrated Evaluation Framework (IEF) AMEC | Turning principles into measurable indicators, and baselines |
| Measurement Maturity Mapper (M3) AMEC | Graded maturity levels instead of a bare score |
| Club licensing standards Continental and international federations | A named media officer, press facilities, and matchday procedures |
| Web accessibility and performance standards | Measuring the digital media centre with published, standard tools |
The adaptation — our intellectual property
International frameworks measure corporate communication in general. Our adaptation adds three things absent from them — and these are what make the index a sports index rather than a generic one:
- Season rhythm — a sports media operation is measured by how it performs before, during and after the match, and by its ability to sustain presence out of season. General frameworks have no equivalent.
- Sporting crisis readiness — defeat, a referee decision, a transfer, a furious crowd. Speed and clarity of response here is a standard in its own right.
- Memory and archive — a club is an institution of memory before it is a publisher of news.
Every item in the tables below carries its reference, so the answer is: this is not our opinion — it is a published standard applied to everyone alike.
The six axes
The score runs to 100, distributed across six axes with published weights that do not change within an edition.
Digital platform and online media centre
Automated| Indicator | Source |
|---|---|
| A genuine newsroom on the official website | Site crawl |
| A dated, searchable press-release archive | Site crawl |
| A media library of photo and video with clear usage terms | Site crawl |
| A named media officer with direct contact details | Site crawl |
| Bilingual media content (Arabic / English) | Site crawl |
| Technical performance: load speed and mobile responsiveness | Official performance tool |
| Accessibility: text alternatives, contrast, keyboard navigation | Automated check + review |
| Available corporate profile and brand assets | Site crawl |
Reference: club licensing standards (media facilities and staff) + web accessibility and performance standards.
Innovation and information design
Double human review| Indicator | How it is assessed |
|---|---|
| Information design: turning numbers and data into readable visuals | Review panel against a five-point descriptive scale |
| Use of AI tooling in production, archiving or translation | Documented evidence or entity disclosure |
| Original ideas: formats not copied from others | Compared against the wider field in the category |
| An innovative digital experience (interaction, live data, new media) | Direct review |
| Renewal over time: has the style evolved or does it repeat itself? | Compared with the previous edition |
This is the axis that money cannot buy, and the source of the surprises in the ranking. To keep it honest: double review for every entity, a written descriptive scale for each band, and the reasoning behind each score recorded in text.
Public impact and reach
Automated + authorised| Indicator | Source |
|---|---|
| YouTube channel performance: views, subscribers, publishing regularity | Official YouTube API |
| External media presence and press-release pickup | News monitoring |
| Publicly available platform engagement | Whatever each platform permits within its terms |
| Detailed reach and impression figures | Entity accounts linked under official authorisation |
| Outtakes and outcomes: the message becoming a position or a behaviour | Survey or entity-supplied data |
Reference: the IEF chain — outputs, outtakes, outcomes, impact.
Automated access to social platform data is restricted by the platforms themselves, and we use no method that breaches their terms. This axis is therefore scored in the public table from lawfully available sources only, and entities that have linked their accounts carry a “verified data” mark — an advantage for them, never a penalty on others.
Discipline and continuity
Season rhythm| Indicator | Source |
|---|---|
| Publishing regularity across weeks — not volume, but consistency | Site crawl + RSS |
| Coverage around the event: before, during, after | Time-stamped monitoring |
| Out-of-season presence | Two-period comparison |
| Time to statement after an event | Timestamps |
| Continuity of recurring formats (a show, a bulletin, a fixed column) | Monitoring |
Reference: SPOMEXA adaptation — “season rhythm”.
Narrative quality and institutional voice
Human review| Indicator | How it is assessed |
|---|---|
| Format range: news, report, story, interview, documentary | Classified monitoring |
| Ratio of value content to promotional content | Reviewed sample |
| Consistency of institutional voice across platforms | Comparative review |
| Depth: is there a person and a context behind the news? | Reviewed against a descriptive scale |
| Language and editing quality | Review |
Transparency and governance
Automated| Indicator | Source |
|---|---|
| A named, publicly known spokesperson | Official website |
| Disclosure of institutional decisions through official statements | Monitoring |
| Journalist access: accreditation, permits, published procedures | Official website |
| Crisis readiness: a published procedure and speed of response | Case monitoring |
| An annual report or its equivalent | Official website |
Reference: club licensing standards + the integrity and transparency principle in the Barcelona Principles.
Scoring and levels
Each indicator is scored from zero to five against a written descriptive scale, weighted within its axis, and the axes are then combined by their weights into a score out of one hundred.
What is published: the score, the level, the rank within the category, and the six-axis print. Sub-indicator detail is never published for any entity.
Governance
Seven non-negotiable pledges. To break one is to break the index itself.
- The methodology is published before results — not with them, not after. This page is that pledge in practice.
- Advance notice — every entity receives its score before publication with a fair window and a correction form. An entity that corrects its data becomes a partner in the number rather than its victim.
- Right of reply — an entity’s response is published beside its score on request.
- A published corrections policy and an open corrections log.
- Evidence archiving — every score is tied to a dated, stored snapshot that is never deleted. On objection we send the file, not an opinion.
- Separation of roles — the index is cold, numeric and silent. It does not comment, mock or provoke. Analysis and argument belong to separate editorial work.
- Conflict of interest — any entity contracting with SPOMEXA to develop its media operation is disclosed explicitly beside its score.
The three tiers
| Tier | What the entity receives | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Public | Score, level, rank within category, axis print | Free for all |
| Full file | Indicator detail, benchmark against the category, gap map, actionable recommendations, verified figures from linked accounts | On request |
| Development | Implementing the recommendations and building the media operation with the SPOMEXA team | By contract |
This is not merely a commercial offer — it is the only lawful route to detailed platform data.
Release plan
| Stage | Deliverable |
|---|---|
| 1 | Final approval of the entity list; methodology and weights locked |
| 2 | Writing the descriptive scale for every indicator — zero to five |
| 3 | Building the collector and evidence store; piloting on five entities |
| 4 | Full collection + human review |
| 5 | Publishing the methodology page |
| 6 | Notifying entities and opening the correction window |
| 7 | Publication, with editorial coverage days later — never alongside |