Man who spent eight years building 23ft matchstick Eiffel Tower finally gets World Record after U-turn

Richard Plaud knows all to well that perseverance is key - that's how he got through the last eight years of building a massive Eiffel Tower replica out of more than 700,000 matchsticks.

But his unwavering patience has also led to the Guinness World Records performing a dramatic U-turn after initially refusing to honour all his hard work.

Have a look at his incredible work here:

The Frenchman, 47, was understandably gutted after being told his staggering 7.19m (23.6ft) model of Paris' iconic landmark wouldn't earn a place in the history books as the world's tallest structure made out of matches.

Seen as though he spent nearly a decade of his life painstakingly putting it together, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth to say the least.

The Guinness World Records rejected his bid for a spot in it's annual book - after claiming that it was invalid - due to the type of matches he had used to create his masterpiece.

You see, Plaud used a bit of a shortcut. Instead of individually removing the bits of sulphur at the end of each match, and instead of making even more work for himself, he decided to get in touch with a match manufacturer.

He struck a deal and ended up getting sent thousands of sulphur-free matches for his Parisian inspired project, but the record adjudicators told him that only ‘commercially available’ matches qualify for the category.

Plaud was told that the heads of the matches would have had to be individually scratched off if he wanted his attempt to have a fighting chance.

Facebook/Richard Plaud

The amateur sculptor was obviously pretty peed off about the decision and took to social media to vent his frustrations.

He claimed that the Guinness World Records had given their verdict without ever seeing his Eiffel Tower in person. In an Instagram post he said it was 'pretty astonishing, actually rather annoying' and 'not exactly fair play'.

Plaud fumed: "What hurts most is that they don't acknowledge the work that I put in, the time I spent, the mental energy - because I can tell you it was not easy.

"BIG DISILLUSION, DISAPPOINTMENT AND INCOMPREHENSION. Tell me [how] the 706,900 rods stuck one by one are not matches!!?? And they are too cut to the point of being unrecognizable!!??"

In response, the Guinness World Records admitted that officials may have been a ‘little heavy handed’ in their decision making and promised to get in touch with the council worker to iron out the issue.

The director of central records services, Mark McKinley, has since revealed that Plaud has now been awarded the world record while apologising for the mix-up.

Facebook/Richard Plaud

He told Metro: "We take a lot of pride in being as thorough as possible when reviewing evidence, because our rules and evidence requirements level the playing field for everyone, everywhere who wants to attempt a record.

"However, having learned more about the techniques used by the matchstick model community, and after a second review of this achievement in relation to similar record titles that we have awarded, it seems that we have been heavy-handed in the application of our rules in this case.

"We are therefore very happy to award Richard with the Guinness World Records title and we have corrected some inconsistencies within our rules which now allow the matchsticks to be snipped and shaped as the modeller sees fit.

"We regret the distress that the last 24 hours will have caused on what should have been a moment of celebration for Richard. I hope he’ll accept our belated congratulations on behalf of everyone at GWR on his truly impressive structure – and his new Guinness World Records title."

If this isn't a reminder to stick up for yourself and your hard work, I don't know what is.