UEFA has come forward with an apology after they removed several videos of Scotland fans celebrating their nation’s 2026 qualification after 28 years.
The Scottish Football Supporters Association received emails from the European football body stating that it shared clips showing the TV coverage of Scotland’s match against Denmark on X (formerly Twitter).
The posts shared by SFSA featured footage of fans celebrating the national team’s qualification from all over the country. The video shared by SFSA was taken down from X due to copyright infringement, and SFSA’s account was also blocked.
Following the backlash, a UEFA spokesperson explained that the European football governing body has an extensive content protection programme and that, in this case, their content protection agency had picked up some wrong footage. The spokesperson shared, “UEFA has a robust and extensive content protection programme in place to combat the unauthorised distribution of its content. In this instance, it appears that the relevant content was wrongly picked up by our content protection agencies.”
They further added, “We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused and thank you for your understanding. Congratulations on your qualification for the World Cup, a fantastic achievement that we know means so much to Scottish fans everywhere.”
SFSA Co-founder Paul Goodwin Questioned UEFA’s Fairness
Paul Goodwin shared that most of the clips used in the videos were of fans watching the match in bars across the country. He claimed that the match was being watched legally on the BBC and that the clip was barely 40 seconds long.
He shared, “It is hard to believe that UEFA are so out of touch that they demanded that X take down images of joyous fans in bars in Glasgow, Stirling, and Dundee, where some of our members were celebrating a glorious evening for the nation. Yes, the game was on in the background but these clips were of fans watching the game that were legally being watched on the BBC and were an average of 40 seconds long.”
Scotland Fans Reportedly Shook The Ground Following Their Qualification
The British Geological Survey reported that they recorded a tremor equivalent to a small earthquake during Kenny McLean’s goal against Denmark that sealed the 4-2 win.