26First of all, it is to be noted that, on the one hand, the Court has already held that a football league fixture list constitutes a ‘database’ within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9. The Court essentially held that the combination of the date, the time and the identity of the two teams playing in both home and away matches has autonomous informative value which renders them ‘independent materials’ within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9, and that the arrangement, in the form of a fixture list, of the dates, times and names of teams in the various fixtures of a football league meets the conditions set out in Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9 as to the systematic or methodical arrangement and individual accessibility of the data contained in the database (see Case C-444/02 Fixtures Marketing [2004] ECR I-10549, paragraphs 33 to 36).
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