Fixture Time - but greed means Fan Sites miss out

By Albatross
June 24 2004

Once again, it's time for the Fixture List to be published - but Pools Online can't put up a list of them. As has been the case for a while now, a license is needed - and that license costs more than those of us running fan sites can afford to shell out.

While the fixtures are embargoed until 10am, there's little I can do other than suggest that you try and check on the Official Site for them at that time - although last year there was enough of a rush that the servers slowed to a crawl across the league. Hopefully things will be a little better this time, and there are options if you sign up for the SMS service as well.

I can't help but find this situation farcical - but the threats of legal action that Sport Network and many other organisations have received in the past are far from humourous. Last season, in order to display the fixtures I would have had to pay £258 (plus another £45 in VAT), plus possibly a "delivery charge" of another £100 (again with VAT to add). To add further to the sense of injustice, a regional newspaper (such as the Hartlepool Mail or Northern Echo) that wanted to print the fixtures but not display them online would have found themselves paying approximately a third of that cost. Including delivery, regional newspapers paid as little as £150 to display a club's fixtures last year - Pools Online could have been stung for well over £400. Now remind me again, how much do I get paid for doing this site? Oh yes, diddly squat - I'm a fan doing this for love of the game. Figures for this year are proving to be slightly more elusive, but somehow I don't think it will be any cheaper!

It's ironic that while many organisations would pay to have the sort of coverage that the fixture lists will generate, the Football Authorities in this country expect other people to pay them for the privelege of advertising their games. It seems that the best way to attract people to a match isn't to publicise the date of it as much as possible, by all means available - it's to restrict the number of people that can tell you in advance when a game is going to happen.

Let me stress that it's not Hartlepool United that are doing this. The Football DataCo Ltd are acting as the big bad wolf here, with the Football League, Press Association and a lot of legal clout backing them up. It's now reached the stage that if I displayed as many as four of the fixtures, I could be in bother. That's going to make running a Prediction League interesting then - I'll only be able to enter one or two games at a time!

Here then is what I am definately allowed to tell you about the list. There will be 46 league games on it, with an exact split between home and away games. There will be gaps for cup competitions. We will play everyone in Division 2 (oh sorry, that's "League One") twice. A large number of our games will kick off at 3pm on a Saturday, while others will be evening kickoffs in midweek with occasional games on Bank Holidays that will probably also start at 3pm.

So there you have it. Much as I'd like to, I cannot put the fixtures up for you unless I fancy a visit from the legal equivalent of the Heavy Mob. I must also ask that no-one posts them to the Messageboard, as the sharp eyes of the Football DataCo will no doubt be keeping that under scrutiny too. What they can't do though is stop me saying that in my opinion this is another example of how money is ruining the game that we all love. Yet another brilliant idea from the people that brought you "League One".