The claim

Ukrainian football fans have caused a scandal in Qatar. Three compatriots were arrested after showing fascist gestures and painting the World Cup mascot with Nazi symbols. This is shown by a video from the Arabic news channel “Al Jazeera”.

Our conclusion

The video is fake, as is the situation described. Upon request, it was confirmed that Al Jazeera did not produce such a video. Instead, the counterfeiters improperly imitated the channel's logo and used sequences from two YouTube clips for the fake video.

The World Cup started in Qatar on November 20th. Meanwhile, the war of aggression in Ukraine continues to rage day after day. ___STEADY_PAYWALL___Both Russia and Ukraine are not represented at this championship. However, users are currently spreading a video on social media that is supposed to show that Ukrainian fans in Qatar received more attention than expected.

Video with drunk Ukrainians

The video is currently being viewed primarily on Russian Telegram channels and on various social media platforms. It reports (allegedly from the Arabic news channel “Al Jazeera”) about three drunk Ukrainians who were arrested in Doha for spreading “Nazi symbols”. The three men showed a fascist salute and also painted the mascot “La'eeb” with a Hitler beard on 10 posters.

Clip not from official news channel

The official logo of the TV channel “Al Jazeera ” can be seen in some parts of the video. The style of the short video is also similar to similar posts from the news channel that it publishes on social media accounts, . However, there are neither one or more reports of the alleged incident on the Al Jazeera website nor on other websites, which suggests it is fake.

Other small details in the clip provide further evidence that the situation is fake. For example, the makers of the video copy the location mark “Doha, Qatar, 20 NOV 2022” exactly from other publications by the news channel, but a small detail is missing: the dot after the year.

also to the German press agency (dpa) that it was a fake. “Al Jazeera has never published this or any other material related to it,” it said.

But where do the images shown come from?

Even after research by the dpa, the video material does not come from the Arabic TV station. If you look at the first scenes from the video, you will notice many people wearing yellow tops, some of whom are holding red and white flags in their hands. In the background you can read the inscription “Spectator Entrance” several times in front of an entrance. An image search with this inscription and the keyword “World Cup Qatar” provided a clue to the location: Some images were taken during the opening game of the World Cup. Accordingly, the background is people in yellow Ecuador jerseys in front of the Al-Bayt Stadium in Doha.

More detailed investigations lead to a YouTube video from which the recordings actually come.

The English daily newspaper “The Sun” published a three-hour-long video about the arrival of the fans at the opening game, which can now be found on YouTube. Three parts of this clip, including the beginning, were used as the background of the apparent fake.

The police scene also originates from YouTube

Just like the initial background of the fake video, the scenes with the police officers were also taken from a video from YouTube. This is already eight years old and was published at the time by the Arabic account “AlrayyanTV”, on which several content from the Qatari rescue police authority “ Al Fazaa ” can be found. from minute 6:38 , where in the original police officers check an older man who seems confused. This has absolutely nothing to do with the current World Cup.

What about the Nazi inscriptions on the mascot?

In addition to the clips taken from YouTube, the fake video also features an image of the official World Cup mascot “La'eeb ” with a “Hitler beard” and the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil”. Surprisingly, a reverse image search did not produce any similar results online. This is unusual in the sense that if posters around the stadium had really been defaced like this, you would most likely find similar and other images in the media. On the other hand, this fact suggests that these posters are also fakes or edited images.

fact checker from “Knack commented on this thesis when he was presented with the sequence by Dutch fact checkers. His analysis also suggested manipulation: “This part was compressed to a different quality than the rest of the photo,” the fact checkers then wrote. Although the reverse search on the Internet did not produce any results, there are similar photos of advertising hoardings with the World Cup mascot that were taken in Doha.

There are always fakes to legitimize the war

Pro-Russian actors repeatedly try to legitimize the Russian war of aggression, not least by branding Ukraine and its government representatives as right-wing radicals. In addition to justifying the attack, it also aims to strengthen the claim of “denazification” of Ukraine, although in this case the forgery obviously aims to do the same thing. These patterns have also become clear several times in our previous fact checks

Source: German Press Agency


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