We’re Sorry, This Video is no Longer Available

Don’t worry, that’s not a real video. But I’m sure you’ve seen that message more than once before here on The Offside and elsewhere, and I’m sure you shouted some pretty loud swear words at your screen (or is it just me that does that?)

We all know the counterargument: no one is using YouTube videos to replace a tv subscription, and the videos actually serve to promote interest in the beautiful game. And it seems there are more videos (and video sharing sites) available now than ever before.

But the good people at 101 Great Goals have discovered some slightly scary evidence of just how serious certain organizations are about wanting you to see that message instead of the top 10 Premier League goals of the season.

There’s an excellent site set up by some (we assume) very smart M.I.T. students called YouTomb. Not only does it have a clever name, it catalogues every video that’s removed from YouTube, and who did the removing.

They even have a top 50 taker -downers. And in amongst media giants like Viacom are two football related companies:

NetResult – the heartless football hating fools legal company working for the Premier League to take down as much content as possible come in 7th, while UEFA themselves come in 19th (probably due to Champions League takedowns.)

YouTomb has also set up profiles of both NetResult and UEFA, listing all videos they’ve had removed and showing exactly when each video was taken down.

Maybe it’s not particularly useful (unless you see the dreaded message and want to know exactly how long you missed out by) but at least now we have a record of exactly what NetResult and UEFA are doing. And though they’re clearly putting a lot of effort into this, I’d argue that the sheer quantity of video and the determination of YouTubers (and others) to share great football moments with likeminded souls means this might be one battle the big companies can’t win.

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Category: World Football