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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Sports fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about sports. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

1,766 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYSports

Video of Lionel Messi’s son Mateo Messi scoring a goal

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video of a child scoring in a kids’ football game, presented on social media as showing Mateo Messi, Lionel Messi’s son. FACTLY’s review concludes that the child in the clip is not Mateo. It reports that R.S.C. Anderlecht, a Belgium-based football club, shared the footage on TikTok, and says the club’s video is the same one circulating in the viral post. The review describes using reverse image searches on screenshots from the viral clip. Those searches led to an article about the child being misidentified as Mateo; the article included screenshots from the video and also said the boy was not Mateo. FACTLY then searched for more information and found articles about the video from June 2022 that likewise identified the child as someone other than Mateo. The review also cites sports journalist Veronica Brunati’s identification of the child as a player at R.S.C. Anderlecht and her link to a TikTok video the club uploaded in January 2022. FACTLY says that linked video matches the viral footage and points to another video of the same child scoring. These reported source and image matches support the review’s conclusion that the goal-scoring child in the claimed video was misidentified.

FACTLYSports

The Argentina football team fans from Kerala erected a cutout of Messi under water

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video said to show Argentina football fans from Kerala erecting a Lionel Messi cutout underwater. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the video’s location as Lakshadweep, not Kerala, and attributes the underwater installation to Lakshadweep-based vlogger Mohammad Swadikh. The review says the cutout was placed on the seabed of the Arabian Sea. To trace the video, the review notes that the viral footage bears a “Lakshadweep Vlogger” watermark and that text visible at 0:14 reads “Argentina Fans, Kavaratti.” It says a search identified Kavaratti as Lakshadweep’s capital, then led investigators to a YouTube video titled “underwater messi cut out at Lakshadweep,” uploaded by Swadikh. FACTLY reports that the YouTube visuals match the viral clip. This comparison and the location clues support the finding that the video was misidentified as being from Kerala. The review also reports that Swadikh said in an NDTV interview that he made the underwater cutout to fulfil a Facebook challenge he had posted: he would erect one if Argentina qualified for the FIFA World Cup final. Thus, the footage does show a Messi cutout underwater, but the review’s account places the person who erected it and the filming location in Lakshadweep, rather than identifying the event as a Kerala fan group’s installation.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaSports

IPL ක්‍රීඩක වෙන්දේසියේ දී චාමික කරුණාරත්නව කිසිදු හෝ කණ්ඩායමක් මිලදී ගත්තා ද?

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated social-media posts claiming that Sri Lankan all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne had been bought for the 2023 Indian Premier League. One post claimed Sunrisers Hyderabad paid 15.25 crore Indian rupees for him; another said he had become the most expensive player in IPL history. The review distinguishes those claims from the narrower auction question: whether any team actually bought Karunaratne at the December 23 auction. The article says the mini-auction took place in Kochi and that Karunaratne was among ten Sri Lankan players nominated for it. It also notes that he had played for Kolkata the previous year but was not retained for the 2023 season. The review reports that the auctioned Sri Lankan players, including Karunaratne, went without a purchase: none of the ten was bought by any team that day. That directly contradicts the posts claiming that he had been purchased. The review gives a concrete comparison for the separate claim that Karunaratne became the auction’s most expensive player. It reports that Punjab Kings bought England’s Sam Curran for 18.50 crore rupees, surpassing the previous IPL auction record of 16.25 crore paid for South Africa’s Chris Morris. The article’s conclusion is therefore that Karunaratne was nominated but not bought, and that the social-media claims about his sale and record price were false.

Sunanda NaikSports

Image shows Mamta Banerjee Prensenting FIFA WC 2022 Trophy

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a circulating image said to show West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee presenting the FIFA World Cup trophy to Lionel Messi after Argentina’s victory. NewsMeter’s investigation examined that image and the accompanying claim that Banerjee handed Messi the trophy at the tournament final. The review reports finding a similar image on the web through a Google search for “Lionel Messi accepting FIFA World Cup finale trophy.” It says the viral image had been published by a sports website with a caption about Argentina’s captain lifting the trophy. Comparing the viral image with the original, the review concluded that Banerjee had been superimposed and FIFA president Gianni Infantino removed. The review also says it could find no media reports of Banerjee attending the 2022 final or presenting a trophy. Its conclusion is that the image was digitally altered, rather than evidence that she presented the trophy to Messi.