Video does not show FIFA president reprimanding Messi for pulling out of Jakarta friendly

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 28, 2023 at 10:38
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A video viewed millions of times on social media falsely claims to show FIFA president Gianni Infantino "rebuking" superstar Lionel Messi for not taking part in Argentina's friendly with Indonesia in Jakarta on June 19, 2023. The video actually shows Infantino talking about the criticism directed at World Cup hosts Qatar during the tournament in the Gulf state on November 19, 2022.

"FIFA REBUKES MESSI!! FIFA President (Gianni Infantino) Reprimands Lionel Messi for Not Playing in Indonesia," says Indonesian-language text in this TikTok video, which has been viewed at least 2.5 million times since it was posted on June 16, 2023.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on June 22, 2023

The first 18 seconds of the video show FIFA president Gianni Infantino speaking at a press conference, seemingly saying in English: "I am disappointed with Messi because he didn't play in Indonesia. I see, Indonesians really idolise Lionel Messi. But it's a shame Messi really doesn't appreciate them."

Subtitles that appear on the screen translate the speech into Indonesian.

The sequence is followed by an Indonesian-language voice-over that translates to English as: "Lionel Messi receives a reprimand from the FIFA president after he didn't join the team in Indonesia. It's been confirmed that Lionel Messi would not play in Indonesia along with two other senior members of the Argentina team."

The video circulated after reports that Messi would skip the friendly between Argentina -- the 2022 World Cup champions -- and Indonesia on June 19, 2023, to the disappointment of his Indonesian fans.

After days of speculation about his participation, Messi was not present for the international friendly in Jakarta, as reported by AFP.

In a press conference held a day before the Indonesia friendly, Argentine head coach Lionel Scaloni said the football star skipped the match in Jakarta because he needed to rest (archived links here and here).

The video also circulated here and here on TikTok, here on Facebook; here on Instagram, and here and here on YouTube, racking up more than 2.7 million views.

But the claim is false.

Manipulated video

Using keyframes from the digital investigation tool InVID-WeVerify, AFP was able to locate the original source of the false video.

The clip is taken from a video on the Guardian's football channel on YouTube, showing Infantino at a press conference during the World Cup in Qatar on November 19, 2022 (archived link).

The footage of Infantino used in the false post was taken from a section of the Guardian video starting at the 52-second mark.

This footage shows Infantino's voice was dubbed over in the false post.

In the Guardian video, Infantino actually says in English: "I think for what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people."

Infantino was addressing criticism of host nation Qatar's treatment of migrant workers and record on human rights, as reported by AFP.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the false video (left) and the footage from the Guardian (right):

Screenshot comparison between the false video (left) and the footage from the Guardian (right)

FIFA's transcript of the press conference and AFP's full footage of Infantino's one-hour-long press conference show he did not criticise Messi (archived links here and here).

A search of FIFA's official communication channels did not turn up any post from either the organisation or Infantino rebuking Messi for not joining his national team for the friendly match in Jakarta.

AFP previously debunked other false claims related to the friendly between Indonesia and Argentina here and here.

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