Football Association Premier League Research Articles

벌점화 회귀분석을 이용한 English Premier League의 승점 예측모형 개발 및 경기력 요인 탐색

Advancements in Information Communication Technology during the Fourth Industrial Revolution have led to rapid progress in soccer-related industries and research. Various countries have professional soccer leagues devoted to securing victory. These activities include studies that identify the performance factors that significantly influence the outcome of matches. Researchers often use linear regression analysis based on least-squares estimation for this process, but this method has several issues. As an alternative to this, penalized regression analysis that minimizes the penalty-pointed residual sum of squares has been developed as an alternative. However, there are few studies using the penalty point regression analysis to predict points in soccer. Therefore, in this study, theoretical contents were introduced to activate the penalty point regression analysis, and further examples of application were presented by empirically analyzing 2020-2021 EPL(EPL: The Football Association Premier League Limited) data. It was found to be a statistical predictive model. According to the results, the LASSO model and elastic net models were more suitable statistical prediction models from the perspective of the root mean square error (RMSE). Additionally, among the 19 variables used in the analysis, defensive factors such as tackles, clean sheets, and saves were identified as critical performance factors that impacted the score. Based on the results of this study, in order to enable more in-depth research in the future, the researchers hope that the EPL website will provide activity data, such as the total distance traveled, number of sprints, instantaneous speed, and distance between attackers and defenders.

The Arbitrability of Corporate Disputes After Fulham Football Club V. Richards: A Decade On

In Fulham Football Club (1987) Ltd v. Richards and The Football Association Premier League Ltd, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales settled a controversial matter, finding that unfair prejudice petitions under section 994 of the English Arbitration Act 1996 could be referred to arbitration. At the time the judgment was handed down, it was met with some scepticism with commentators arguing that it would lead to inconsistency and confusion in the arbitrability of disputes and the remedies that can be awarded in arbitration. In the years that followed, the Court of Appeal’s judgment has been relied on in the development of the arbitrability of corporate disputes in England and Wales and several other common law jurisdictions. On the occasion of the ten-year anniversary of the Fulham decision, this article explores whether the confusion and inconsistency that commentators predicted have, in fact, materialized. Arbitrability, Arbitration Act 1996, Corporate disputes, Fulham Football Club v. Richards, Remedies, Section 994, Unfair prejudice

The Evolution of Copyright Website Blocking In the UK: Live Blocking Orders

Since the first copyright website blocking order issued in 2011, an evolution has occurred in the UK regarding — among other things — the type of blocking. Recently, the High Court of England and Wales granted the application of the Football Association Premier League for a live blocking order against a number of major UK ISPs. The court held that it had jurisdiction under s.97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act to order relevant ISPs to temporarily block access to streaming services giving unauthorised access to the right holder’s content (football matches). This contribution discusses the implications of these decisions against earlier UK case law and comments on possible future developments of s.97A orders.

Overview of 2017 UK Trade Mark and Designs Decisions

This report highlights key UK trade mark and design decisions from the past year that may be of particular interest to comparative lawyers. The Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision in the Kit Kat case, thereby confirming the rejection of the registration of the four bar Kit Kat. The decision was based on a very technical point regarding the assessment of acquired distinctiveness, and comparative lawyers will appreciate the divergence between the decisions of the UK and EU courts on this point. We are still awaiting the decision in Sky v. Skykick, where the trial judge rejected the defendant’s application for a pre-trial reference to the CJEU and refused to stay the infringement proceedings. This case concerned the application of the “own name” defence in UK trade mark infringement matters. In BMW v. Technosport, the courts addressed how use of a sign may “affect any of the functions of the trade mark”, and the case of Bhayani v. Taylor Bracewell provides further guidance around the ownership of goodwill as opposed to a mere reputation. The case of Merck v. Merck continued in 2017 and will carry on into 2018, with two pharmaceutical companies fighting over the use of the mark MERCK, particularly in cyberspace. The Court of Appeal remitted the case back to the High Court for consideration on a number of points. Caspian Pizza is a decision that will undoubtedly provide comfort to smaller businesses that have been operating within a particular locality and can establish corresponding localised goodwill. The issue of groundless threats was discussed again in 2017 in the case of Nvidia Corp v. Hardware Labs while the question about whether the sale of “grey goods” can give rise to criminal liability was discussed in R v. M, R v. C, R v. T. Online blocking injunctions were taken one step further in the Football Association Premier League case. The concept of a trade mark trolling was explored in the number of UKIPO Registry decisions involving Michael Gleissner, who sits as a director of companies that own a questionable number of trade marks and domain names. On the designs front, Neptune v. Devol Kitchens considered the scope of a UK design right following the Intellectual Property Act 2014.

Image Right Clauses in Football Contracts: Masterstroke for Mutual Success?

As the commercial and marketing aspect of the game continue to blossom, footballers are beginning to pay more attention to the own commercial value outside of the ‘beautiful game’. Image is particularly important for sport personalities as they constantly try to present their persona in the best possible way by pushing themselves into ‘perfection’ in order to enhance their popularity and marketability. Further, with the widespread commercialisation of the media, sport broadcasting has become a really big business thereby making it ever more important for parties to stake claims for their share. This heavy commercialisation of football has made it necessary to critically review the contractual relationship between footballers and clubs. It is quite normal for clubs to enter into employment contracts with their players wherein the players would be required the players to consent that the club uses their name, brand or image for its marketing and commercial activities. On the other hand, players might want to exploit the commercial value of their own image and persona. Is there a potential conflict here? How is or should the individual interests of the clubs and the players be managed? As it relates to the English Premier League, the answer to this query will be heavily dependent on our reading of Clause 4 of the Football Association Premier League (FAPL) standard contract which details the rights and duties of players and clubs. This paper analyses the implications of the image rights arrangements between the Premier League clubs and their footballers and consequently ascertain the fairness and efficiency of the bargain between the parties and as against external stakeholders.

Paid in Full: A Critical Look at the Law and Economics of the Football Creditors Rule

The Football League has recently modified its Football Creditors Rule. Once the sport’s financial regulatory bête noire, the changes met with little fanfare. However, these amendments do not fundamentally change the essential structure of a regime that has seen criticism from the media, the judiciary, academics, and indeed has been subject to litigation by the British tax authorities. This paper examines the law and economics of insolvency in English football, framing the case of HM Revenue and Customs v. The Football League Limited & The Football Association Premier League Limited in its prevailing economic context and considering the particular legal challenge brought by HM Revenue and Customs, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Moving beyond the decision in the above cited case, a critique of the underlying cogency and validity of the Football Creditors Rule is provided, which is centred on the views espoused by Michael J. Sandel in What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limit of Markets. Particularly, it is posited that the nature of the rule has served to debase the norms that should govern football clubs’ financial management and has instead abetted a climate of free spending by systemically diminishing the downside risk of insolvency between football clubs.

Weathering the Murphy storm: domestic IP litigation and industrial consolidation as pragmatic responses to the Court of Justice's decision?

ABSTRACTThis article explores the impact of the 2011 Murphy preliminary ruling on the dynamics of the sports broadcasting market and focuses on the actions of Sky plc (formerly BSkyB), which owns the rights to broadcast live matches involving several major English Premier League clubs. It is suggested that through its merger, post-Murphy, with its German and Italian arms, BSkyB appeared to act, albeit in the background, to protect its position in the industry and gain a foothold in very lucrative and still partly untapped pan-European markets. The article also explores the recent IP litigation initiated by the Football Association Premier League (FAPL) in English and Scottish courts designed to rein in landlords and tenants seeking to rely on the free movement rights confirmed in the 2011 judgment. It asks to what extent these various strategies can be read as an attempt by rights holders to ‘limit the damage’ to the value of their investments in expensive media content caused by Murphy.

Sporting events as dramatic works in the UK copyright system

The Court of Justice of the European Union, in the Football Association Premier League and Murphy rulings, categorically concluded that sporting events themselves, and in particular football matches, could under no circumstances be classified as works for the purposes of copyright at the EU level, as they are not a given ‘author’s own intellectual creations’, within the meaning of the Information Society Directive2001/29/EC. Besides dismissing copyright in a sporting event per se, the CJEU leaves open to domestic legal orders its inclusion into subject matter that is worthy of protection, comparable to that granted to works.The proposal advocated in this article is to entitle certain sporting events – the so called ‘choreographed’ sports – to copyright protection in the UK, rather than to other IPRs or specific agreements concluded between a ‘holder’ of IPRs and a broadcaster. Owing to the absence of UK case law on the issue, determining the extent to which a sporting event warrants copyright protection calls for an enquiry into existing and stipulated forms of expression and other requirements for copyright subsistence, specified in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (‘CDPA’). It is submitted in this paper that the most plausible route is to ascertain whether an analogy can be drawn between a sporting event and a ‘dramatic work’, pursuant to section 3(1) of the CDPA, which is inclusive of a work of dance. The other conceivable option, in light of Norowzian v Arks Ltd (No 2), would be to qualify the content of films or broadcasts, reproducing sports competitions, as dramatic works.

Battle for control? Copyright, football and European media rights

The position of copyright in the arena of sports content rights and property rights of sporting organizations is a highly contested area of legal and commercial interest in the digital age. At its core is the issue of whether copyright can be incorporated into sports rights contracts as it has been for many years. This article identifies the ramifications of this debate for the existing business models for both rights holders (Football Association (FA) Premier League, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)) and broadcasters. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders, this research analyses the strategic responses of pan-European broadcasters in the field, and key football content rights holders at both the national and European level. How will these developments affect both the pan-European and national markets for football rights? How does copyright law affect live and recorded games and what are the implications for the wider European audio-visual sector of changes in the rights regime for European cultural content?

‘I found out the hard way’: micro-political workings in professional football

This paper examines the micro-political experiences of Adam (a pseudonym), a newly appointed fitness coach at a Football Association Premier League club, in his search for acceptance by senior colleagues. Data were collected through a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews, before being subject to a process of inductive analysis. Goffman's writings on impression management and stigma, Kelchtermans's micro-political perspective and Garfinkel's notion of status degradation are primarily utilised to make the sense of Adam's perceptions and actions. The findings point to the value of developing coaches’ micro-political understandings, and of including their formal facilitation within given professional preparation programmes. Doing so, it is argued, would better equip coaches for the problematic realities of their practice.

Online and Its Effect on the “Goods” Versus “Services” Distinction

Traditionally, the effect of digital networking technologies on copyright is seen in the loss of control rightholders have suffered over the production and dissemination of their copyrighted works, since digital technology facilitates the making of copies at almost no marginal cost. Also, networking technology, including peer-to-peer file sharing, deprives rightholders of control as regards the distribution of copyrighted works to users. Later on it became apparent that the democratisation of reproduction and dissemination tools extended the application of copyright – which initially governed the relationships between authors and commercial users, i.e. publishers, film producers and broadcasting organisations – to acts undertaken by end users. Finally, automatisation of the data reproduction and dissemination process mainly by internet service providers raised the difficult issue whether, and if so to what extent, the need to automate new information disseminating systems may justify – as ‘‘collateral damage’’ – some infringements of individual copyrights. Over the last several years copyright law has adapted to these challenges, perhaps not in all respects but at least to a certain extent. However, recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union – mainly UsedSoft (C-128/11) but to a certain extent also Football Association Premier League (Murphy; C-403/08 and C-428/08) – signals yet another major challenge for two legal concepts which up until now seemed to be well established: the notion of ‘‘goods’’ on the one hand, and the notion of ‘‘services’’ on the other hand. Indeed, each of these two decisions has attracted considerable attention due to their somewhat surprising outcome and the numerous additional questions raised by each of them. In UsedSoft, quite surprisingly the CJEU decided for the exhaustion of the

Levelling the (Football) Field: Should Individuals Play by Free Movement Rules?

This case note considers joined cases C-403/08 and C-429/08 (FAPL v. Pub Landlords), in which the CJEU (Grand Chamber) dealt with the exclusive licensing system of the Football Association Premier League for the broadcasting of football matches. The exclusive licensing arrangements were found to infringe EU law on two counts. First, they restrict the freedom to provide services ex Article 56 TFEU, which cannot be justified by either the protection of copyright or the promotion of live attendance at football matches. Second, the licensing scheme infringes Article 101 TFEU as it amounts to absolute territorial protection for the individual broadcasters in their respective national markets.

Copyright Owners Cannot Require Satellite Broadcasters to Impose Territorial Restrictions on the Use of Decoder Cards

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice has held that it is anticompetitive for the Football Association Premier League (FAPL), when licensing the broadcasting of football matches by satellite, to require its licensees not to supply decoder cards so as to enable access to the broadcasts in EU Member States outside their exclusive territories.

‘Reproduction’ And ‘Communication to the Public’ Rights in EU Copyright Law: FAPL v QC Leisure

In Football Association Premier League v QC Leisure, a dispute arose regarding the supply of (genuine) Greek satellite decoder cards to pubs and bars in the UK. The Football Association Premier League grants exclusive territorial licenses to broadcasters in different Member States. In the UK, the exclusive licensee is Sky and in Greece it is Nova, and the subscription fees charged by these broadcasters vary by thousands of pounds. In this case, Greek satellite decoder cards, which cost considerably less, were used by the operators of UK premises to receive live broadcasts of English Premier League football matches from satellite channels outside the UK (ie from Greece).

Technical efficiency in the English Football Association Premier League with a stochastic cost frontier

This article uses an econometric frontier model to evaluate the technical efficiency of English Premier League clubs from 1998/99 to 2002/03 combining sport and financial variables. A Cobb–Douglas cost specification of the technical efficiency effects model is used to generate football club efficiency scores, allowing for contextual variables which affect inefficiency. We conclude that the efficiency scores are mixed. A policy is devised for the management of this sector.

The importance of a match in a tournament

A quantitative measure of “match importance” is useful in a number of decision problems, for example: as a metric in tournament design; for selecting matches for broadcasting; for scheduling matches in a tournament; and for assigning referees. To date measures of match importance used in such analyses have been relatively naïve. We discuss a general measure that considers the effect of a particular match on the end of tournament position, given the results of all other matches, some played, some predicted. We use logistic regression to predict matches and Monte Carlo simulation to compute the match importance measure, and apply these to soccer matches in the English Football Association Premier League.

Looking Through the Hourglass of Fan Segmentation: Research Findings and Marketing Implications for Live Spectator Sports

The purpose of this research was to investigate the attendance range of spectators at an English Football Association Premier League club. The numbers of spectators in both percentage and absolute terms were calculated and allocated to three segments (heavy, medium, light attendance). The findings were compared to an earlier reported study in the United States and marketing recommendations based on related studies and industry expertise were proposed for those involved in live spectator sports.

‘From the 4 Ps to the 3 Rs of marketing’. Using relationship marketing to retain football club supporters and improve income

Football clubs have traditionally adopted a product-focused approach to their business activity and have in recent years moved to a more promotion-orientated strategy. These approaches are still based on the traditional'transactions' paradigm developed from the US market for consumer goods. This paper argues that it is now appropriate to offer a relationship-driven approach to the football club sector and details why this strategy is applicable and what steps are necessary to initiate this approach. The paper is set in the context of the (English) Football Association Premier League with primary research being undertaken with Coventry City Football Club. The principles and application of marketing theory are, however, applicable across a broad range of live spectator events.

The use of extension strategies by clubs in the English Football Premier League

The paper reports on a preliminary study of the application of line and brand extension strategies by Football Association Premier League football clubs. It looks initially at the factors which have led clubs increasingly to consider extending their lines and their brands. In this context, a range of issues that should be considered for successful line and brand extension in football is established. Utilizing primary research, this is supported by an exploratory investigation into the nature and scope of the line and brand extension strategies employed by Premier League football clubs. The paper concludes by detailing recommendations for clubs and for other academics interested in seeking to explore this rapidly changing area.

The Local and the Global in English Soccer and the Rise of Satellite Television

This article is concerned with unpacking some of the important dimensions of the developing relationship in Britain between satellite television and sport. The article discusses (a) the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB network and the central role of Sky’s exclusive deal with the new Football Association Premier League for soccer in cementing the future for satellite broadcasting in Europe, and (h) the role of sport and television in constructing national identities and in promoting some of the conditions for the enactment of effective forms of citizenship. The discussion concludes with some comments on recent trends in the commercialization of sport and on the possibilities for the mediation of new forms of spectator attachments to sport.