In his opinion delivered today, Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi, refuted the claims of Football DataCo and the English and Scottish football leagues that intellectual property rights under the Database Directive subsist in the annually-created fixture lists. Fixture lists, for each season of the leagues, set the dates and venues for every match to be played. Football Dataco et al, asserted that there is in the fixture lists a sui generis right and a copyright under the Database Directive and a copyright under UK law.

The Assembly of Clubs of Uruguayan Football Association (AUF), presented before the Chamber of Senators a project to create a sports lottery, in order to generate more income to the sports entities. The idea was received cautiously by the government party. The proposal, presented by the Assembly of Clubs of AUF, with the support of Second League teams, was made by vice president of Deportivo Maldonado, José Luis Rapetti, to the Special Sports Commission of the Senate.

The Irish Football Association last night admitted they have been put in a “ very difficult position“ after betting was suspended on an Irish League match at the weekend. Bookies say they got suspicious after an unusual amount of bets went onto the Glenavon v Armagh City game at Mourneview Park, which ended in a 5-0 win for the home side. Some firms reported bets being put on the match as early as Thursday, which they said was „abnormal“ for a Saturday afternoon league match.

UEFA President, Michel Platini, last week chaired an informal meeting between European football’s governing body and key representatives of the European betting industry to discuss ways of strengthening the Memorandum of Understanding between UEFA and betting operators. The meeting was attended by Betfair, the European Sports Security Association (ESSA), the European Lotteries and Verband Europäischer Wettunternehmer (VeWu).

As part of its efforts to protect the integrity of the game of football, FIFA has extended its early warning system for monitoring sports betting to take in the preliminary competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Early Warning System GmbH, a company founded specifically for this purpose with its own staff and offices in Zurich, has been contracted to undertake this task and started the relevant work on 1 July 2007.