French Ligue 1 football club Paris Saint-Germain has been left red-faced after its Uefa Champions League match against Manchester United was accidentally streamed live to a global audience on social media platform Facebook.
PSG said the error occurred due to a geolocation problem, adding that Facebook teams are currently investigating the matter to ensure that it does not happen again.
Facebook holds Champions League rights in Brazil along with sports broadcaster Esporte Interativo. PSG agreed to cross-post Esporte Interativo’s Facebook coverage of yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) match against United on to its own official page.
A similar cross-posting arrangement was in place for PSG’s group-stage match against Liverpool on November 28, with the initiative designed to open up Esporte Interativo’s coverage to more fans in Brazil.
Yesterday’s coverage should have been geo-restricted to Brazil but this was not the case, meaning that the club’s millions of global followers had access to the match for a short period of time.
French newspaper Le Parisien reported that more than 1.4 million people ended up watching the Facebook coverage of the match, which PSG won 2-0. PSG acted quickly to remove the link after it became clear that the coverage was not geo-restricted.