diff --git a/validation/validate-mmcif-file.py b/validation/validate-mmcif-file.py
index 94ddd443f254d26aab0b0da5ea6e5552f0086c26..c82178cbd74b71ca92bc80fb413fed769faf0a2a 100755
--- a/validation/validate-mmcif-file.py
+++ b/validation/validate-mmcif-file.py
@@ -263,15 +263,22 @@ def _get_associated_files(model_cif_file, assoc_dir):
         if dat_cat is None:
             continue
         idxs = _get_indeces(
-            dat_cat, ["archive_file_id", "file_format", "file_path"]
+            dat_cat,
+            ["archive_file_id", "file_content", "file_format", "file_path"],
         )
         for row in dat_cat:
             if row[idxs["file_format"]] == "cif":
-                arc_id = row[idxs["archive_file_id"]]
-                arc_file = archives[arc_id][0]
-                cif_file = row[idxs["file_path"]]
-                data = _unzip_arc_cif(arc_file, cif_file, assoc_dir)
-                assoc_files.append((data, archives[arc_id][1]))
+                if row[idxs["file_content"]] == "local pairwise QA scores":
+                    arc_id = row[idxs["archive_file_id"]]
+                    arc_file = archives[arc_id][0]
+                    cif_file = row[idxs["file_path"]]
+                    data = _unzip_arc_cif(arc_file, cif_file, assoc_dir)
+                    assoc_files.append((data, archives[arc_id][1]))
+                elif row[idxs["file_content"]] not in ["other"]:
+                    raise RuntimeError(
+                        "Unknown associated CIF file content "
+                        + f"found: {row[idxs['file_content']]}"
+                    )
 
     return assoc_files, mdl_cif, entry_id_map