Football DataCo
Encyclopedia
Football DataCo is a British
company in the football (soccer)
industry that grants licences to third parties (such as newspapers) allowing them to reproduce certain intellectual property
(such as fixture lists and statistics) owned by the UK's four professional football leagues: the Premier League, The Football League
, the Scottish Premier League
and the Scottish Football League
.
Many of Football DataCo's activities are contracted out to the Press Association
(PA). Thus, PA Sport handles applications for and distributes fixture lists and produces the Actim statistics service on behalf of Football DataCo.
Football DataCo is wholly owned by Premier League and The Football League.
Newspapers printing the fixtures of all clubs are be charged around £3,931 plus VAT by DataCo for a date ordered listing.
The money accrued by Football DataCo for the rights to this data is distributed to league clubs on an egalitarian basis, approximately:
ruling that the Premier League and Football League cannot use the European Database Directive
to demand payment from media and pools
companies for the publication of fixture lists. Football DataCo refute the ruling, arguing that a legal precedent was set in the UK back in 1959, when the Football League won a landmark copyright victory against Littlewoods
, claiming income from the pools company for their use of the fixtures list.
Staunch opponents of Football DataCo argue that the ruling is long out of date, and needs to be brought more inline with the advances in information collection and delivery that we are seeing with the World Wide Web.
Small, independently owned football fan sites have been badly hit by Football DataCo, who even charge non-profit making enterprises the standard fee for use of single club fixture data unless adopted by a club as a "Nominated Fanzine" in which case the charge is £1.00 plus VAT. This has meant that many fanzines have been threatened with removal of the fixtures by Football DataCo.
The company has also challenged many not-for-profit websites over their use of football club badges on their websites.
The licensing business outside of the UK is handled by Fixtures Marketing Ltd, which has filed lawsuits against Finnish Oy Veikkaus AB
, Swedish AB Svenska Spel and Greek Organismos Prognostikon Agonon Pododfairou AE for using fixture lists without a licence.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
company in the football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
industry that grants licences to third parties (such as newspapers) allowing them to reproduce certain intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
(such as fixture lists and statistics) owned by the UK's four professional football leagues: the Premier League, The Football League
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
, the Scottish Premier League
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League , also known as the SPL , is a professional league competition for association football clubs in Scotland...
and the Scottish Football League
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League is a league of football teams in Scotland, comprising theScottish First Division, Scottish Second Division and Scottish Third Division. From the league's foundation in 1890 until the breakaway Scottish Premier League was formed in 1998, the Scottish Football League...
.
Many of Football DataCo's activities are contracted out to the Press Association
Press Association
The Press Association is the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland, supplying multimedia news content to almost all national and regional newspapers, television and radio news, as well as many websites with text, pictures, video and data content globally...
(PA). Thus, PA Sport handles applications for and distributes fixture lists and produces the Actim statistics service on behalf of Football DataCo.
Football DataCo is wholly owned by Premier League and The Football League.
Fees
Football DataCo charges a standard fee for the reproduction of fixture lists, which currently stands at: £266 plus VAT to print the fixtures of one English club.Newspapers printing the fixtures of all clubs are be charged around £3,931 plus VAT by DataCo for a date ordered listing.
The money accrued by Football DataCo for the rights to this data is distributed to league clubs on an egalitarian basis, approximately:
- 18% to the Premier League clubs;
- 56% to Football League clubs;
- 25% to Scotland, mostly to Scottish Football League clubs.
Controversy
The company has been racked by controversy in the UK media, after a 2004 European Court of JusticeEuropean Court of Justice
The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
ruling that the Premier League and Football League cannot use the European Database Directive
Directive on the legal protection of databases
The Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databasesis a European Union directive in the field of copyright law, made under the internal marketprovisions of the Treaty of Rome...
to demand payment from media and pools
Betting pool
A betting pool, sports lottery, sweep or office pool if done at work, is a form of gambling, specifically a variant of parimutuel betting influenced by lotteries, where gamblers pay a fixed price into a pool , and then make a selection on some outcome, usually related to sport...
companies for the publication of fixture lists. Football DataCo refute the ruling, arguing that a legal precedent was set in the UK back in 1959, when the Football League won a landmark copyright victory against Littlewoods
Littlewoods
Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...
, claiming income from the pools company for their use of the fixtures list.
Staunch opponents of Football DataCo argue that the ruling is long out of date, and needs to be brought more inline with the advances in information collection and delivery that we are seeing with the World Wide Web.
Small, independently owned football fan sites have been badly hit by Football DataCo, who even charge non-profit making enterprises the standard fee for use of single club fixture data unless adopted by a club as a "Nominated Fanzine" in which case the charge is £1.00 plus VAT. This has meant that many fanzines have been threatened with removal of the fixtures by Football DataCo.
The company has also challenged many not-for-profit websites over their use of football club badges on their websites.
The licensing business outside of the UK is handled by Fixtures Marketing Ltd, which has filed lawsuits against Finnish Oy Veikkaus AB
Veikkaus
Veikkaus Oy is the Finnish national betting agency. It is entirely owned by the Finnish government and has a legal betting license on lotteries and sports betting in Finland. Veikkaus is managed by the Finnish Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education share money earned by Veikkaus with various...
, Swedish AB Svenska Spel and Greek Organismos Prognostikon Agonon Pododfairou AE for using fixture lists without a licence.