Screening of illegal satellite matches prompts backlash from attendance-hit football club
Premiership club Bolton Wanderers has applied for licence reviews of five pubs around the Reebok Stadium that show foreign satellite football.
This is the first time a Premiership club has targeted pubs for showing live Premiership matches.
The club believes the pubs, two of which are Punch Taverns, are affecting its attendances and is calling for the reviews on the grounds they are committing a crime by showing these games.
It sent the review applications on Tuesday following a series of covert operations in the pubs while matches were being shown.
The five pubs affected are:
l the Black Horse in Higher Market Street
l the Willows Hotel in Willows Lane
l the Volunteer in Radcliffe Road
l the New Cabin in Lever Street
l the Morris Dancers in Sapling Road.
Speaking exclusively to the Morning Advertiser, Bolton Wanderer's chief executive Allan Duckworth said: "We've noticed pubs showing these games for a while, but for the last 12 to 18 months it has become quite a significant problem.
"It definitely affects our attendances. We've done research with fans locally and we are sure it is affecting a lot of other licensees in the area who are acting legitimately.
"We've spoken to the licensing authority and the local police and we believe a licence review is the most appropriate way to deal with this issue.
"It's a growing problem - unless we take some pretty strong action, it is only going to get worse.
"We have been monitoring these premises and we know they have been illegally broadcasting Saturday afternoon matches for some time."
MA legal expert Peter Coulson said the club's applications were valid because they are "businesses in the vicinity of the premises".
According to the Licensing Act a review can be sought on the grounds of prevention of a crime.
Coulson added: "Clubs can seek a review if they can show that a criminal offence - in this case copyright theft - is taking place within the vicinity of their ground, because one of the four licensing objectives of the Licensing Act is the prevention of crime."
Meanwhile, the MA has a copy of a Government letter that says Sky is the only televised way to watch live Premiership football in this country.
The letter, written last January by James Purnell,
then a minister at the Depart-ment for Culture, Media & Sport, also contains the line sometimes used by suppliers to justify selling foreign satellite systems to pubs. In his letter to Lindsay Hoyle MP, Purnell says: "It is not illegal for a pub/licensee to subscribe to a foreign satellite channel as opposed to BSkyB..."
However, just two paragraphs later in a line which does not feature as prominently on suppliers' literature, Purnell adds: "Sky are the only company authorised to broadcast live FA Premier League matches in the UK."
MA legal advisor Peter Coulson said the letter showed that foreign satellite
equipment was not illegal but that, as he had maintained, using it to show
copyrighted material was.