Richard Plaud who spent 8 years building the tallest Eiffel Tower out of 700,000 matches finally managed to get a place in the Guinness World Records as those in charge recognized that they had gone too far in their first reaction, namely… rejecting his attempt and they even apologized to him for the disturbance they caused him.

“We were excessive in applying the rules”

“We consider it very important to be as thorough as possible when looking at the evidence because this process is a proof of equality towards those attempting a Guinness World Record all over the world. However, after learning more about the techniques used in making matches and after reviewing similar records we have recognized, it appears that we were overreaching in the application of the rules in this case,” a Guinness World Records spokesperson told Sky News.

“Therefore we are pleased to recognize the Guinness World Record to Richard and also fixed some inconsistencies in our rules and now the matches are allowed to be cut and shaped as the modelers see fit” added the same representative.

“We apologize for the disruption we have caused over the past 24 hours which should have been a time of celebration for Richard. We hope she will accept the congratulations from all of us at Guinness World Records for her really impressive construction of it and the new record recognized” concluded the Guinness World Records representative.

The 47-year-old Frenchman unveiled his work on December 27, the 100th anniversary of the death of the engineer who built the actual monument.

However, the Guinness World Records committee’s decision not to recognize his 7.19-meter-high construction made of matchsticks angered him!

“It’s disappointing, embarrassing, incomprehensible and not fair,” he told The Times, unable to believe his effort had fallen victim to red tape.

“Tell me how 706,900 matches that I stuck one by one, are not matches. My Tower will continue to exist and will be at 7.19 meters for many years,” he wrote in another post.

It is noted that the Guinness Record for the Eiffel Tower made of matches has been held since 2009 by Toufic Daher from Lebanon, who created a 6.53-meter-high effigy.