Frenchman’s matchstick Eiffel Tower sets record after all following ‘emotional rollercoaster’ Guinness U-turn

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A Frenchman set a world record for his 23.6-foot matchstick model of the Eiffel Tower after initially being snubbed by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Richard Plaud said he had been on an “emotional rollercoaster” this week, after spending 4,200 hours over eight years on building his model from more than 706,000 matches and 23 kilos of glue.

Mr Plaud said in an earlier announcement that he was denied a world record by Guinness because officials said he used the wrong type of matches.

Guinness World Records initially told him he didn’t make the cut as he hadn’t used matches that were “commercially available”. Mr Plaud started off by using commercial matches, cutting the head off each. Tired of this tedious process, he asked the manufacturer if he could buy just the wooden sticks without the head, prompting Guinness to refuse his record.