Dundee City Council’s server crashed because of the number of local authority staff watching England’s World Cup match against Slovenia.
The system failed just after the game kicked off at 3pm, prompting council bosses to quickly block the BBC website streaming live footage.
Internet access is only permitted for work-related matters and watching sporting events within working hours is seen as a breach of the rules.
Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, hit out at council staff and managers, claiming the usage policy should have been made clear.
He said, “It is a matter of great concern that the people of Dundee appear to have been paying their council tax so staff can watch the football during work hours.
“It doesn’t say a huge amount for the council’s IT system that the whole thing was disrupted just by people logging on to watch the match at the same time.
“The council managers have obviously not made it clear that office time is for working and not for watching the match.”
A city council spokesman said regular feedback is provided to managers on what their workforce are viewing online.
“There was a short interruption to internal access to the internet and Dundee City Council blocked access to the BBC site,” he said.
“However, public access to the council’s website was uninterrupted. Internet access is provided for staff to carry out their work functions, as determined in the Acceptable Use policy.
“All internet access is monitored and recorded and departmental managers are provided with regular reports of use and inappropriate access.”