Photos show a stadium in Indonesia, not Ghana

Published on January 17, 2024 at 17:12
3 min read
By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

As Ghana prepares to host the 13th edition of the All Africa Games from March 8-23, social media users shared images claiming that they show a new stadium in the capital Accra that will be used for the event. But the photos are actually of the Banten International Stadium in the city of Serang, Indonesia.

"A newly constructed sports stadium in Accra Ghana to host the All African Games," reads a post published on Facebook on January 4, 2024. It was shared more than 120 times before being deleted.

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on January 15, 2023

The post features three images from inside a stadium showing rows of yellow and green seats, football goalposts on a grass field, and a running track.

The same photos were also shared elsewhere on Facebook and on X.

The All Africa Games, initially set to take place in August last year, were rescheduled to March after a deal was reached between major stakeholders running the multi-sport competition.

In 2020, President Akufo-Addo announced plans to construct an Olympic-quality stadium at Borteyman for the games.

The Borteyman Sports Complex, which is still under construction, is expected to host some of the games. The rest should take place at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium, the Accra Sports Stadium, and the Achimota Cricket and Golf Club (archived here).

But the photograph does not show a newly constructed stadium in Accra.

Photo from Indonesia

The images in the misleading post feature a logo in the bottom-left corner that reads "SR". A reverse image search found the pictures were part of a series published on the Instagram account of sports news website SportsRender, which bears the same SR logo.

Screenshot from the Sportsrender Instagram account showing one of the images shared in the post

According to the caption, they were taken at Banten International Stadium in Indonesia.

The photos were also published on StadiumDB.com (archived here) – a website dedicated to publishing stories featuring football stadiums – where they were also described as Indonesia’s Banten International Stadium.

Screenshot from the StadiumDB.com website showing one of the images shared in the post

The Tribunnews, an Indonesian news site, shared a video on its YouTube channel on August 29, 2022, showing the inside of the stadium (archived here).

In the clip, you can see the same yellow and green seats, running track and goalposts on a grass field as in the misleading social media posts.

CNN Indonesia also published an article about the opening of the 30,000-seater stadium in May 2022 (archived here).

Meanwhile, photos and a video of the under-construction Borteyman Sports Complex in Accra were published by local news sites here and here late last year (archived here and here).

Screenshot of a video published by OsikaniTV showing the under-construction Borteyman Sports Complex in late November 2023

According to the reports, the country's sports and youth minister Mustapha Ussif said that the sporting complex would be completed ahead of the All Africa Games.

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