body: For my PHD I will do an academical research study about the English Premier League. Therefore I created a database out of several online databases - namely the ea sports fifa ultimate team scores, and official data by the premier league like name, nation, age and the players profile picture by the british premierleague. 
  
  
  The participants can only take part in the study via a personalized invitation URL. 
  
  
  The main purpose of the study is to understand the impacts of different player combinations in fantasy teams (known players, but in unreal teams) on team likings based on ethnic influences and other facts. 
  
  
  So from my understanding this should be not a copyright infringement because of the following criteria: 
  
  
  * (1) academic use ([Exceptions to copyright: Research](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/375954/Research.pdf))
  * (2) non-commercial use
  * (3) closed user group (non publically published)
  
  
  The terms and conditions of the EPL can be viewed [here](https://www.premierleague.com/terms-and-conditions)
  
  
  I will of course cite the original data sources and state their ownership of the data / images. I will explicitly state, that none of the players or clubs are involved in the experiment. 
  
  
  Is this a legal use of the data by ea sports and the premier league in the uk? 
  
  
  thanks for any hints or insights on this topic!
  
  
  
title: Using premier league data for academic resarch