Uefa has apologised after videos of Scotland fans celebrating the team qualifying for the World Cup were removed from social media.
The Scottish Football Supporters Association (SFSA) received emails from the European football governing body stating it had shared footage showing TV coverage of the Scotland v Denmark game on X without permission.
Posts shared by the SFSA showed fans across the country celebrating Tuesday ‘s match, where Scotland secured a World Cup spot for the first time since 1998.
Uefa said many videos were “wrongly picked up by content protection agencies” and taken down due to copyright infringement. The SFSA’s account was also blocked.
SFSA co-founder Paul Goodwin had questioned the fairness of the claim.
He said: “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.
“It really smacks of folk who have no idea about football, making decisions.”
Tuesday’s match was free-to-air on BBC Scotland and BBC Two. Rights differ elsewhere.
One of the videos removed showed a packed pub in Inverurie erupt when Kenny McLean scored with a spectacular shot from the halfway line to seal Scotland’s 4-2 victory.
Mr Goodwin added: “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.
“So its hardly us streaming a game to a worldwide audience.”
The group received emails from lawyers on behalf of Uefa after posts had been flagged for breaching Uefa rules on match footage.
Mr Goodwin said he was “shocked” when the videos were deleted and the group’s account was blocked.
“Our message to Uefa is maybe best summed up in the chant often directed to match officials, ‘you don’t know what you are doing’,” he added.
‘Fantastic achievement’
Following the criticism, Uefa backtracked on the removals and issued an apology.
It said steps were being taken to withdraw the copyright notices so that the videos can be reinstated by the social media platforms.
A spokesperson said: “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.
“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.”
Scotland qualified for their first World Cup since 1998 with a memorable 4-2 win over Denmark at Hampden.
Goals from Scott McTominay, Lawrence Shankland, Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean secured Scotland’s place at the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
As well as fan reactions, video edits of the goals, particularly McTominay’s bicycle kick, have been widely shared on social media sites, including X as well as Instagram and TikTok.
Scottish Labour culture spokesman, Neil Bibby, said the removals had been “heavy-handed”.
He said: “Scotland’s victory on Tuesday night was a historic moment for the country.
“But it was also a spectacular advert for the beautiful game across the globe.”
Uefa frequently removes YouTube videos due to strict copyright enforcement.
The governing body for European football owns the broadcast rights to its matches and generally restricts the uploading of match footage by unofficial channels and fans.
According to Uefa rules, the governing body “is the exclusive owner of all intellectual property rights of the competition, including any current or future rights in all types of audio and visual material of the competition”