![\"euro](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/euro-2024.jpg\")
UEFA is the international body that governs football throughout Europe.<\/p>\nUEFA is the international body that governs football throughout Europe.<\/p>\n
As part of FIFA, the organization holds the rights to several major competitions and tournaments, including the Champions League and the European Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n These events are good for billions of euros in broadcasting rights and with these types of figures at stake, UEFA is understandably keeping a close eye on piracy. The job has become increasingly complex, now that unauthorized live-streaming is booming.<\/p>\n With the EURO 2024 tournament starting in Germany tomorrow, the organization and its anti-piracy partners are on high alert. Systems are in place to detect and shut down pirate streams within minutes, and social media will be heavily monitored as well. <\/p>\n UEFA is not the only organization preparing for the major tournament; pirates are planning ahead as well. In recent weeks, several sites have put up placeholders for the upcoming EURO 2024 matches. <\/p>\n These placeholders are picked up and indexed by search engines. As a result, the pirate sites are easily findable when match day comes. That is, if these pages are still in search engines by then.<\/p>\n According to a notice, published in the Lumen database<\/a>, UEFA anti-piracy partner \u2018Friend MTS\u2019 asked the search engine to remove thousands of \u2018pirate\u2019 live-streaming links over the past week. This includes links to EURO 2024 games that are not even \u2018live\u2019 yet. <\/p>\n The Chinese site below, for example, prepared a dedicated page for upcoming Euro 2024 live streams. After Friend MTS listed<\/a> the URL in a takedown notice, Google promptly removed it. The same is true for other \u201cEURO 2024\u201d pirate streaming placeholders. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Google has removed most of these links from its search index. Although there is technically no copyright infringement yet, Google presumably finds it reasonable to assume that links to pirated streams will appear there eventually, as advertised. <\/p>\n In some cases, UEFA\u2019s requests are rather broad. For example, one of the EURO 2024 takedowns lists a page from Leisu.com<\/a> that doesn\u2019t mention live streams. Instead, it looks more like a live score page. <\/p>\n According to its own website, Leisu Sports is the official \u2018copyright data supplier<\/a>\u2018 of the Chinese Football Association.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n We don\u2019t know whether Google looked into the matter in detail, but the company removed the leisu.com URL from its search results. That said, Google doesn\u2019t simply take down every link that\u2019s submitted. <\/p>\n After looking into more UEFA takedown requests from this month, including friendly matches that were played over the past days, we see many \u2018homepages\u2019 of pirate streaming sites listed. Google appears to be more reserved when it comes to such broad requests. <\/p>\n For example, 123koora.com, amzfutbol.com, rojadirectenvivo.me, and others are still indexed by Google, despite being listed<\/a> in takedown requests.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that UEFA will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that licensed broadcasts are properly protected. In the past, it also sent advance warnings<\/a> to pirate site owners directly, but we haven\u2019t heard similar reports this time around. <\/p>\n While Europe is gearing up for the Championship of the continent\u2019s most popular sport, UEFA received some indirect support from the European Union\u2019s Intellectual Property Office. <\/p>\n Yesterday, EUIPO put a spotlight on the alarming sports streaming piracy rates in the EU. The press release<\/a> mostly regurgitates previously published reports, but that didn\u2019t prevent mainstream media from picking it up. <\/p>\n \u201cAccording to EUIPO data, millions of EU citizens access or stream sports content from illegal online sources while fake sports equipment cost manufacturers \u20ac850 million per year,\u201d EUIPO wrote.<\/p>\n One can wonder whether a reminder of the immense popularly of pirate live streams actually works as an advertisement to the general public, instead of a deterrent. After all, research has shown that these popularity \u2018warnings\u2019<\/a> can backfire. <\/p>\n EUIPO\u2019s intentions are clear; however. It wants fans to \u2018play fair\u2019 and use legitimate viewing options, as pirate \u2018cheers\u2019 don\u2019t pay off. <\/p>\n<\/p>\nEURO 2024 Pirates<\/h2>\n
Preemptive Takedowns<\/h2>\n
![\"euro\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/stream2024.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![\"takedown\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/eurolumentakedown.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nHomepage Removals<\/h2>\n
![\"takedown\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/takedownsdmca.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nEUIPO Support<\/h2>\n