Vital Colchester has discovered that it is possible for one unofficial fanzine at every football club in England to publish full fixture lists for a nominal fee.
This webspace has been monitoring the policy after a series of events this week, following the issuing of the 2009/10 list where Colchester United were draw away on the opening day for the seventh year running, for a derby against Norwich.
It is a known fact that full publication on websites and in paper publications that do not pay independent company Dataco £500 plus VAT are breaking copyright law.
A report in the football magazine When Saturday Comes underlined that fact in 2002.
But a report from a club Supporters` Trust member on Vital Burnley, the network`s site for fans of the newly promoted Premier League club, says any football club can rightfully nominate a single unofficial source to receive exclusivity.
There have been a number of issues with this season`s list, but a long-awaited clarification from the BBC that the club so routinely starts on the road because of the Virgin Music Festival appeared on Wednesday lunchtime.
In terms of copyright, Vital Colchester also reported that local newspaper the East Anglian Daily Times possibly contravened a strict Football League embargo by publishing details of the club`s opening fixture two hours before the Football League`s agreed time at 10:00 AM on June 17.
Vital Colchester now intends to contact both the Football League and the BBC to clarify these issues.
Watch for news in the near future!
The story so far…
Summary of a BBC report on why computing fixtures is hard work – click here.
The East Anglian publishes a 2009/10 Colchester fixture before the agreed deadline – click here.
It comes to light that the bias on Colchester’s away fixtures on the opening day is because of the Virgin Music Festival. To read that article, click here.
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Each club has the ability to give one fanzine a licence for a pound, problem is most clubs won’t sign off on it.
Interesting. you’re getting stuck right into this Matt! Up the U’s!
Will be interesing to see if any reactions are obtained!
If you contact your club, they will let you know if they have a designated fansite or not, their problem is how is it fair to give the status to one site and not them all? Also some don’t know the petty rules and others don’t like independent sites so won’t help anyway despite the fact our sites can be VERY good promo ticket wise etc. We have a far bigger reach at Vital Football than the majority of official sites!
meant to say, the cost is £250 + vat per site, if we did it for all sites it comes to less but still over £10k and on principle, let alone pure bad economics, we don’t see why us fans should pay to publish the fixtures for the games we all pay our hard earnt money to go and see, neither to the European Court of Justice it seems!
Really? the infomation I have said £500… £10,000! That’s way too much! Will see what others have to say when contacted.