Old Ronaldo clip altered to add false subtitles about Indonesia's U-23 Asian Cup defeat

Published on May 20, 2024 at 10:48
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

An old video of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was edited to add false subtitles claiming he said Indonesia's national team was cheated in the semi-final of the U-23 Asian Cup. The video, viewed millions of times, surfaced after Indonesia lost to Uzbekistan in a match that could have seen the Southeast Asian nation qualify for the Olympics for only the second time in its history.

"Even mega star #Ronaldo defended Indonesia in the Indonesia-Uzbekistan match last night," read the Indonesian-language caption of a video shared on Facebook on April 30, 2024.

In the clip with more than 3.3 million views, Ronaldo could be heard saying in English, "I want to focus in my last... to play there. Everything go[es] well, of course it helps."

But Indonesian subtitles added to the video said: "They (Indonesia) could no longer focus after they were cheated by the referee. If the VAR was good and the referee was good, they would not have lost".

The video also included text overlay that said: "CR7 commented on the match between Indonesia and Uzbekistan 'They wouldn't have lost if they hadn't been cheated'," referring to Ronaldo by his nickname.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on May 16, 2024

The video was posted just after the Indonesian team failed to reach the Under-23 Asian Cup final after a 2-0 loss to Uzbekistan on April 29.

According to local media, fans were frustrated with refereeing decisions including a disallowed goal and a red card for captain Rizky Ridho which left the team down to 10 players.

If the archipelago nation had won, they would have played football at an Olympics for the first time in nearly seven decades, since the Soviet Union eliminated them from the 1956 Games in Melbourne.

The country's hopes for the Olympics ended in May following a 1-0 playoff defeat to Guinea (archived link).

The same video was also shared elsewhere on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and SnackVideo with a similar claim, racking up nearly six million views combined.

However, the video was actually from a 2018 press conference where Ronaldo did not mention Indonesia.

False subtitles

Reverse image and keywords searches found a longer version of the video published on October 23, 2018 by BeanymanSports, which often uploaded videos of football interviews and team trainings (archived links here and here).

The video uploaded by BeanymanSports was titled: "Cristiano Ronaldo Full Pre-Match Press Conference -- Manchester United v Juventus -- Champions League".

Ronaldo played for the Italian club after leaving Real Madrid.

The clip shared with the false claim can be seen at 1:43 mark (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video shared on social media (left) and the original clip uploaded by BeanymanSports (right):

Comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the original clip (right)

In the original video, Ronaldo said: "I have to focus in my last…two months in Juve. Was amazing. I enjoyed a lot to play there. Everything go[es] well. My adaptation go[es] well. The team is fantastic. So... the words for me does not mean everything. Of course it helps. It's good."

The football star did not mention Indonesia, Uzbekistan or the U-23 Asian Cup.

ESPN also covered the 2018 press conference, with Ronaldo seem making the same remarks in a video filmed from a slightly different angle (archived link).

AFP reported the next day that Ronaldo helped Juventus beat Manchester United.

AFP has previously debunked a claim that the Asian Football Confederation would replay the Indonesia-Uzbekistan match.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail