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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

Cristiano Ronaldo has accidentally leaked the name of his new club through this latest post

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The viral post claimed Cristiano Ronaldo had accidentally revealed the name of his new club in a recent post. FACTLY traced the link presented as the full post and found that it led to a July 2022 article on 90min.com, not to a recent social-media post by Ronaldo. The review says the article discussed Manchester United allowing Ronaldo to leave and the possibility of a Chelsea offer, but did not say that Ronaldo had leaked a new club’s name.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaSports

Saudi King Or Government Has Decided To Reward Football Players of National Team With Rolls Royce Cars, After Victory Over Argentina!

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns Saudi Arabia’s 2–1 victory over Argentina at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the viral assertion that the government or King would give each Saudi player a Rolls-Royce. The review identifies the match as the event behind the posts and notes that 23 November, the day after the victory, was declared a national holiday. It says the car-reward story circulated alongside other rumors following the upset. To investigate, the publisher says it searched Google and found an Arab News report addressing the specific Rolls-Royce rumor. As described in the review, that report quoted Saudi player Saleh Alshehri, who rejected the claim and said serving his country was the only reward he needed. The review also reports that head coach Hervé Renard denied the story, saying, “There is nothing true about this,” and explaining that the team had played only one match and had important group-stage games ahead. The review concludes that the promised cars were not established as a reward: it cites denials from both a player and the coach, and characterizes the viral claim as fabricated. Its account also distinguishes the rumor from the team’s actual progress in the tournament: Saudi Arabia had lost to Poland after the Argentina match and still had its final group game against Mexico to play. The evidence presented addresses the specific post-match claim, rather than establishing that no Saudi footballer has ever received such a car in another context.

Fact Crescendo CambodiaSports

ខ្សែ​បម្រើ​ជម្រើស​ជាតិ​អារ៉ាប៊ីសាអ៊ូឌីត កីឡាករ Yasir Al-Shahrani ត្រូវ​បាន​បែក​ឆ្អឹង​មុខ និង​ត្រូវ​វះកាត់​ជា​បន្ទាន់ ពេល​នេះ​ដែល​សហព័ន្ធ​អារ៉ាប៊ីសាអ៊ូឌីត​បាន​ស្នើ​សុំ​ជើង​ហោះ​ហើរ​ពិសេស​មួយ​ដើម្បី​បញ្ជូន​រូប​គេ​ទៅ​កាន់​ប្រទេស​អាល្លឺម៉ង់​ដើម្បី​ព្យាបាល។

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

Fact CrescendoSports

कतर ने एक अपाहिज बच्चे की तिलावते कुरआन से फीफा वर्ल्ड कप का की शुरुआत करके अपनी इंसानियत हमदर्दी के साथ साथ यह भी साबित कर दिया कि अगर आप के पास कुरआन की दौलत है तो आप सरबुलंद कामयाब और वक्त के इमाम आप ही हैं।

Publisher’s rating: Partly False

FACTLYSports

Photo of Japan Football team’s messy dressing room after their defeat to Costa Rica in the FIFA World Cup 2022

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo of a dirty dressing room, said to show Japan’s room after its 1–0 defeat to Costa Rica at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. FACTLY identifies the pictured room as belonging to Italy, not Japan, and says the image was old and unrelated to Japan’s match. Its conclusion is that the photo does not establish that Japan left its dressing room in that condition. To trace the image, FACTLY reports conducting a reverse image search. It says the same photo appeared in a TPI news article dated 27 March 2022, which identified it as the state of Italy’s dressing room after a 1–0 defeat to North Macedonia in a World Cup qualifying match. The review places that match at the Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo and dates Italy’s defeat to 24 March 2022. The review further reports that images and videos of Italy’s dressing room were taken by stadium cleaning staff, and that Italian player Leonardo Bonucci later apologised for the condition the team left it in. These details connect the photo to the Italy incident; they do not support attributing it to Japan after the Costa Rica match. FACTLY also notes that Japan’s players had left their rooms spotless after beating Germany, while stating that it found no reports confirming they left the Costa Rica-match dressing room dirty.

DoğrulaSports

“Eldivenler sedyede kalmış” tweet’ini Altay futbol takımının kalecisi Ozan Evrim Özenç’in paylaştığı iddiası

Publisher’s rating: Yanlış

The claim concerned a tweet posted from a Twitter account using Ozan Evrim Özenç’s name after an incident during a Göztepe–Altay match. The tweet said that his gloves had been left on the stretcher and that he would return soon. The review reports that the match was stopped after violence in the stands and a Göztepe supporter entered the field and struck Özenç with a corner flag.

Folha de S.PauloSports

Post no Facebook traz uma imagem de costas do jogador de futebol Richarlison Andrade com um tuíte do atleta sobre um apagão no Amapá. “Infelizmente o povo do Amapá não vai poder ver meu gol hoje pq não tem luz há DUAS SEMANAS”, diz parte do tuíte. O conteúdo é acompanhado da legenda “O cara não para de esquerdar” (sic).

Publisher’s rating: Sátira

The Facebook post presented a real Richarlison tweet as though it referred to the Amapá power interruption around Brazil’s 2022 World Cup debut, pairing it with the caption “O cara não para de esquerdar.” The investigation found that the tweet used in the post was from 2020, not a reaction to the 2022 interruption. The post therefore connected two separate blackouts and match-day events to create its joke. (“É uma sátira a publicação no Facebook que sugere que o jogador Richarlison fez um tuíte sobre o apagão ocorrido no Amapá em 2022.”; “Já o tuíte de Richarlison utilizado na peça de desinformação foi publicado em 17 de novembro de 2020, quando o Brasil disputou as Eliminatórias da Copa do Mundo contra o Uruguai.”) The timing distinguishes the events. On November 24, 2022, an interruption affected 13 of Amapá’s 16 municipalities, beginning about an hour before Brazil’s match and lasting roughly an hour. By contrast, the tweet was published on November 17, 2020, when Brazil played Uruguay; Richarlison scored, and afterward called on authorities to address the ongoing electricity crisis in Amapá. The investigation reports that the 2020 crisis had already lasted two weeks. (“Apesar de o Amapá ter registrado falta de energia no dia 24 de novembro de 2022, a interrupção teve início às 15h (uma hora antes do jogo da seleção brasileira) e retornou cerca de 1 hora depois.”; “Depois do jogo, em entrevista organizada pela Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF), o atacante pediu providências das autoridades em relação ao Amapá, que enfrentava duas semanas de apagão e instabilidade de energia elétrica.”) The review describes searching for reporting on both blackouts and the tweet, and comparing Richarlison’s current Twitter profile photo with the image in the post using Web.Archive.org. Its account says the image matched a profile photo he used in 2020, supporting the conclusion that the post reused an older tweet and image rather than documenting a new 2022 protest. It also notes that the page posting the content commonly published satire and that the review was prompted in part by people taking such posts as true. (“Em seguida, buscamos o tuíte de Richarlison utilizado na peça de desinformação”; “Também comparamos a foto de perfil do Twitter atual do jogador com a do post investigado utilizando a ferramenta Web.Archive.org.”; “Uma captura de tela realizada pela ferramenta Web.Archive.org mostra que o jogador utilizava a foto que aparece no post enganoso em 2020.”)

日本ファクトチェックセンターSports

サッカーW杯で日本サポーターがゴミを散らかしている

Publisher’s rating: 誤り

The review found that the video was reversed: Japanese supporters were cleaning the stands, and the reversal made it look as though they were scattering rubbish. It traced the footage to a report about supporters cleaning the stadium after Japan’s win over Germany.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaSports

ආර්ජන්ටිනාව සමග තරගයේදී ආබාධිත තත්ත්වයට පත් සෞදි ක්‍රීඩකයාගේ හිස් කබලේ ස්කෑන් ඡයාරූපයක්?

Publisher’s rating: False

The review concerns scan images circulated as if they showed the injuries Yasser Al-Shahrani sustained in Saudi Arabia’s match against Argentina. It describes how Al-Shahrani collided with his own goalkeeper, was taken from the field for medical attention, and was later shown online alongside an image depicting severe facial and skull damage. The review says the posts did not establish that the scan was actually his. Its conclusion is that the circulated scans were not connected to his injury in the match. [S1: “සමාජ ජාලා සටහන් අනතුරට ලක්වූ Yasser Al-Shahrani නම් ක්‍රීඩකයාගේ ඡයාරූප සමග හිස් කබලට හානි සිදුව ඇති බවත් නිරුපණය කරන ස්කෑන් ඡයාරූපයක් පැතිර තිබෙන ආකාරයක් දක්නට ලැබුණා.”; “අපගේ කරුණු විමසා බැලීම්වලට අනුව තහවුරු වන්නේ සව්දි අරාබි පාපන්දු ක්‍රීඩක යසර්ගේ ආබාධිත තත්ත්වය හා සම්බන්ධ බවට හඟවමින් සමාජ ජාලා හරහා පැතිරෙන ස්කෑන් ඡයාරූප ඔහුගේ අවාසනාවන්ත අනතුරට සම්බන්ධ ඒවා නොවන බවයි.”] To assess whether the images fit the claimed injury, the review contrasts them with evidence about Al-Shahrani’s condition. It reports that he appeared in a video from his hospital bed, spoke to reassure viewers that he was doing better, and showed no apparent difficulty speaking. The review also points to photographs in which his front teeth did not appear damaged, unlike in the circulated scan. It treats these observations as inconsistent with the extensive jaw and facial injuries depicted in the image. [S1: “කෙසේ නමුත් යසර්, ට්විටර් වීඩියෝවක් හරහා ලෙඩ ඇදේ සිට පවසන්නේ තමන්ගේ තත්ත්වය යහපත් බවයි. එමෙන්ම ඔහු හොදින් කතා කරන ආකාරයක් පෙනී යනවා.”; “සමාජ ජාලාවල පැතිරෙන ස්කෑන් හි ඉදිරිපස දත් වලට හානි සිදුව ඇති බවක් දර්ශනය වුවත් ට්විටර් වල ඇති යසාර්ගේ සේයාරූ වල ඇත්තේ ඔහුගේ දත් වලට හානි සිදුව නැති බවක්.”] The review also describes the collision and subsequent medical treatment, including surgery, but those facts alone do not authenticate the scan. Its reasoning relies instead on the mismatch between the scan’s apparent damage and the player’s recorded speech and visible teeth. The excerpt does not identify the scan’s actual origin, so it supports rejecting the claim that it depicts Al-Shahrani’s injury, not identifying whose scan it is. [S1: “එම අවාසනාවන්ත අනතුරින් පසුව Al-Shahrani වහාම රියාද් හි රෝහලක් වෙත යොමු කර ශල්‍යකර්මයක් සිදුකර තිබු අතර පසුව දෙවන වරටත් ශල්‍යකර්මයකට බඳුන් වූ බව මෙසේ වාර්තා කර තිබුණි.”; “නමුත් මෙය යසර්ගේ ආබාධිත තත්ත්වය නිරුපණය කරන X කිරණ ප්‍රතිබිම්බයක්ද නැද්ද යන්න පිලිබදව නිශ්චිතව තහවුරු කිරීමක් අදාළ සමාජ ජාලා සටහන්වල නැහැ.”]