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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

Factcrescendo Sri LankaSports

Photo Comparison Claiming To Be Streets Littered At A Previous FIFA World Cup, Which Permitted Liquor!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review investigated a viral side-by-side photo comparison presented as showing the difference between a World Cup where alcoholic drinks were allowed and Qatar’s 2022 tournament, where alcohol was restricted. The review says some viewers took the littered street in the comparison to be from a previous FIFA World Cup. The key issue was whether that image actually showed a previous FIFA tournament, rather than whether the two images simply looked different. [S1] To check the images, the review reports using reverse image searches. It found that the clean-road image was associated with the Lusail Boulevard Fan Zone during the 2022 World Cup. For the littered image, it traced the image and its caption to a June 2016 report by the French newspaper Le Parisien, which identified the location as Clichy Street in Paris and the occasion as nighttime matches during Euro 2016. That provenance links the image to a European football tournament, not a previous FIFA World Cup. [S1] The review therefore concluded that the comparison’s implied attribution of the littered scene to a prior World Cup was unsupported: the right-hand image was from Euro 2016, while the left-hand image was associated with Lusail during Qatar 2022. It also notes a qualification to the alcohol-ban framing: although alcohol was prohibited inside stadiums apart from designated areas, the review says sales remained permitted at licensed fan-event venues and in luxury suites. [S1]

日本ファクトチェックセンターSports

ワールドカップでも旭日旗は本当

Publisher’s rating: 誤り

The images showed supporters of Spanish clubs Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid, not World Cup fans. The review also says the flag designs were not Japan’s rising sun flag.

FACTLYSports

Video of cricket players offering Namaz in the middle of a match

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing cricket players offering Namaz in the middle of a match. The original review identifies the people and setting in the footage as West Indian and Sri Lankan players on the ground in Antigua, during the teams’ three-match ODI series in March 2021. It concludes that the players were reacting to bees, not praying: the review says the footage shows players “lying down on the ground because of a bee attack.” The review describes checking screenshots from the video with reverse image search. It says that search found a video with similar visuals in a social-media post dated 14 March 2021, which reported a bee attack during the West Indies–Sri Lanka match. The review also reports finding an India TV article describing the third ODI as briefly halted after a swarm of bees entered the ground in Antigua. The caption under a photo in that article, as quoted in the review, describes Sri Lanka and West Indies players lying down after bees entered the ground. This supplies a match-specific explanation for the posture shown in the viral footage. The review distinguishes this clip from separate occasions when Pakistan player Muhammad Rizwan offered Namaz on the field, noting that those occasions do not explain the video under review.

Fact CrescendoSports

फीफा विश्व कप में हुई जापान की मैच के बाद का है। कहा जा रहा है कि ये तस्वीरें कोस्टा रिका के खिलाफ हुई मैच में जापान की हार के बाद उनके ड्रेसिंग रूम को किये गये तहन-नहस के बाद की है।

Publisher’s rating: False

BuzzFeed JapanSports

サッカーW杯で「日本代表のロッカールームにゴミが散乱」という写真が出回っている

Publisher’s rating: 誤り

The claim was that photos of rubbish-strewn locker rooms showed Japan’s dressing room after its 2022 World Cup match against Costa Rica. The review says the photos were shared with that attribution on social media, including in a Facebook post describing the room as Japan’s after the Costa Rica game. It concludes that the attribution was wrong: the images showed Italy’s locker room, not Japan’s. To trace the images, the review found that they had already circulated on Twitter in March 2022, before the World Cup. A March 26 post described the room as Italy’s dressing room the day after its match against North Macedonia. Italy had lost that World Cup qualifying match on March 25 (Japan time). The review reports that it compared the viral photos with a video attached to the March post and found matching details, including the wooden-looking bench, the locations of bottles and rubbish, the floor, and a poster showing players. The review also contrasted the scene with a photo of Japan’s World Cup locker room posted by FIFA’s official account on November 24, and says the rooms were plainly different. It further reports that the Associated Press cited an Italian Football Federation spokesperson confirming that the pictured room was a locker room in Palermo used by Italy’s team. Taken together, the earlier Italian post, matching visual details, and the reported federation confirmation support the conclusion that the circulating photos did not depict Japan’s room after the Costa Rica match.

FACTLYSports

Video of a football match stopped during Azaan at FIFA World cup Qatar 2022

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim links a video of a football match paused during Azaan to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. FACTLY’s review identifies the footage instead as a Saudi Arabian cup match between Al Fayha (also written Feiha) and Al Fateh at King Salman Sport City Stadium on 24 January 2018. It says former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg stopped play while the call to prayer sounded from nearby mosques.