Apologies to my visitors who come to this page to in order to see who their teams are playing next.
I was asked to remove the fixture list by the authorities that govern the Premier League.
Over 20 years ago I was informed that my site,
"contains Premier League fixtures for Season 2000/01.
Please note that we own the copyright and all other rights in the fixture list and/or any substantial part of it.
We have not consented to your use of the fixture list.
By reproducing the fixture list, you are infringing our copyright." |
I was unaware that the fixtures were protected by copyright status,
so, I contacted the authorities to find out what I needed to do to comply.
The answer was to obtain a licence.
If it had cost a few pounds for administrative purposes to register my site with them then I would still be showing the fixtures.
However, for a website to display the fixtures,
an annual licence is required and this costs….
FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS
I was told that this licence was needed if I only wanted to show the games taking place in the next week.
(It would seem that even a week constituted
a "substantial part" of the fixture list for the season.)
That’s right, Four THOUSAND to merely display information that any football fan would like to have.
What is the game coming to.
In my opinion, having to pay such a fee to display the fixtures for this country’s national game is example of just how far the game has become removed from the everyday fan.
I really do not see any good reason why the fixture list is copyrighted.
I am deeply disappointed that I am no longer able to provide this service, but hope you will understand that I do not feel that the fee required is justified. |