FIFA wants to tackle websites that offer illegal World Cup streams

Just before the start of the World Cup, FIFA warned site owners that offer live streams to take strong action against unauthorized streams of football matches. FIFA also wants far-reaching takedown options.

In the letter, sent by FIFA to an unknown number of websites, the World Football Association demands that site administrators make every effort to immediately remove any illegal World Cup streams or links to live match footage. To this end, the association advises to release people during the tournament, so that they can act quickly as soon as FIFA submits links that should be removed. If they fail to do so, FIFA threatens legal action, both criminal and civil, according to the letter that TorrentFreak received via an unknown site owner.

FIFA, which earns billions of euros in rights with the World Cup, goes a step further in its letter and asks the site owners to also make a tool available to the company NetResult to immediately remove links to illegal World Cup streams. The world football association has hired NetResult to watch over the rights online. With this unusual request for direct site access, FIFA goes way beyond the regular procedures of takedown requests. It is not clear whether any site owners have complied with this request.

Whether NetResult will succeed in curbing the illegal stream supply remains to be seen. Increasingly, p2p technology, such as Ace Stream, is being used to distribute sports images via the internet. Such networks are difficult to combat because of the p2p architecture.