Posts falsely claim Lionel Messi backed Indonesia football team ahead of World Cup qualifier with Australia
- Published on September 16, 2024 at 06:03
- 4 min read
- By Felix NATHANIEL, AFP Indonesia
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"World megastar Lionel Messi made a dismissive comment about Australia," read the Indonesian-language caption to a clip posted on SnackVideo on September 9, 2024.
The clip shows several excerpts of Messi giving interviews interspersed with footage of the Indonesian national team and their South Korean head coach Shin Tae-yong.
"At a press conference, the football star from Argentina gave a rather surprising view," says the clip's Indonesian-language voiceover.
It says Messi predicted Australia would not be able to beat Indonesia, who have significantly improved under Shin's guidance.
Text overlaid on the video reads, "Australia will lose, Messi supports Indonesia".
The clip circulated a day before Indonesia drew 0-0 with Australia in a World Cup qualifier in Jakarta (archived link).
The result was Indonesia's second draw in as many games against higher-ranked opponents, having also held Saudi Arabia to a 1-1 draw in Jeddah on September 5 (archived link).
Similar claims were shared elsewhere on SnackVideo and TikTok.
Comments on the posts suggest some users believed Messi had commented on the upcoming match.
"Thank you, Messi, for your opinion," read one comment.
Another said, "Thank you for your support, Messi."
But there have been no official reports of the 2022 World Cup winner giving his opinion on the Australia-Indonesia match at a press conference. The interview excerpts shown in the false posts are from interviews where he discussed unrelated topics.
Old interviews
A reverse image search on Google found the first interview excerpt came from a YouTube video published on the verified channel of Argentine online newspaper Infobae on June 7, 2024 (archived here).
"Intimate Messi: the memory of his grandmother, his bond with Argentina and why he did not watch the final again," read the video's Spanish-language caption.
The portion used in the false posts corresponds to the section beginning at the YouTube video's 4:07 mark, where Messi talks about his feelings playing for the national team.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the clip used in the false post (left) and Infobae's video (right):
A subsequent reverse image search on Yandex led to the second interview excerpt, which was taken from an interview Messi conducted with the Miami Herald (archived here).
The interview was posted on the US newspaper's verified YouTube channel on August 18, 2023, and is titled "Watch the interview: Lionel Messi opens up on Marvel celebrations, Miami traffic and more".
The excerpt used in the false posts corresponds to the 42-second mark of the Miami Herald video, where Messi is asked whether he talked to his former Argentina teammate Gonzalo Higuain about moving to the United States.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the clip used in the false post (left) and the Miami Herald video (right):
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches led to the final interview excerpt, which was from an interview Messi did with the Barcelona-based newspaper Sport about his decision to move to Inter Miami (archived link).
It was published on Sport's official YouTube channel on June 8, 2023.
The section used in the false post matches footage shown at the video's 3:33 mark.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the clip used in the false post (left) and the Sport video (right):
Messi does not mention either Indonesia or Australia in the three videos.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to Indonesia's football matches here, here and here.
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