API-Football MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides access to football/soccer data through the API-Football service. This creates a standardised way for language models to interact with this API, and users a way to query in natural language.

Architecture

graph TD
    LLM["`**LLM with MCP Client**
    Claude/GPT-4/etc.`"]
    
    subgraph Server ["`**MCP Server**
    Football Data Gateway`"]
        direction TB
        MCP["`**MCP Protocol Handler**
        Request Router & Response Manager`"]
        
        subgraph Functions ["`**Available Functions**`"]
            direction LR
            API1["`**get_leagues**
            Fetch league data`"]
            API2["`**get_teams**
            Fetch team data`"] 
            API3["`**get_players**
            Fetch player data`"]
            API4["`**get_fixtures**
            Fetch match data`"]
        end
        
        MCP --> Functions
    end
    
    ExtAPI["`**API-Football**
    External Sports Data API`"]
    
    %% Main connections
    LLM <===> MCP
    
    %% Function connections to external API
    API1 <--> ExtAPI
    API2 <--> ExtAPI
    API3 <--> ExtAPI
    API4 <--> ExtAPI
    
    %% Styling with improved colors
    classDef llm fill:#4CAF50,stroke:#2E7D32,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff
    classDef mcp fill:#2196F3,stroke:#1565C0,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    classDef functions fill:#FF9800,stroke:#F57C00,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    classDef external fill:#9C27B0,stroke:#6A1B9A,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff
    classDef server fill:#E3F2FD,stroke:#1976D2,stroke-width:2px,color:#1976D2
    
    class LLM llm
    class MCP mcp
    class API1,API2,API3,API4 functions
    class ExtAPI external
    class Server server

1. Clone and Setup

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/danknight/api-football-mcp-server.git
cd api-football-mcp-server

Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Get Your API Key and Set Environment

Create a .env file with your credentials:

API_FOOTBALL_KEY=your_api_key_here

Sign up on API-Football to get an API key.

3. Configure MCP Client

Register this server in your MCP client (e.g. Cursor, Claude for Desktop).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "api-football": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["absolute/path/to/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "API_FOOTBALL_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or run directly from the command line and explore with Inspector:

python server.py

Tools

The following tools are exposed to MCP clients:

League Information

Team Information

Player Information

Match/Fixture Information

Player Statistics

Other Information

Usage Examples

Get leagues in a specific country

get_leagues(country="England")

Get teams in a specific league

get_teams(league_id=39, season=2023)  # Premier League 2023

Get team statistics

get_team_stats(team_id=42, league_id=39, season=2023)  # Arsenal stats

Get fixtures for a team

get_fixtures(team_id=42, next=5)  # Next 5 Arsenal matches

Get top scorers in a league

get_top_scorers(league_id=39, season=2023)  # Premier League top scorers

Development

Running Tests

Currently, no tests are implemented. To add tests:

1. Create a tests/ directory
2. Add test files following the naming convention test_*.py
3. Run tests with python -m pytest

Adding New Tools

To add a new tool:

1. Add a new function in main.py decorated with @mcp.tool()
2. Implement the API call using make_api_request()
3. Update this README with the new tool information
4. Test the tool with the MCP Inspector