Video of pro-Palestinian chant filmed before World Cup, in Europe
- Published on June 16, 2026 at 19:27
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
Social media users are claiming a video shows Bosnia and Herzegovina fans at the 2026 World Cup shouting a pro-Palestinian chant ahead of their football team's opening match against host country Canada in Toronto. But while the footage is real, it was filmed in Sarajevo weeks before FIFA's tournament.
"BOSNIA FANS CHANT FOR PALESTINE AT THE WORLD CUP," says text over the video, shared June 12, 2026 on Instagram.
Similar posts spread across Instagram and other platforms, including Facebook, Threads and X.
Bosnia and Herzegovina fans have turned out en masse for their men's football squad's second-ever appearance in a World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The team battled Canada to a 1-1 draw in Toronto in the group stage's opening round on June 12.
Bosnian Muslims make up a significant slice of the country's population, and the capital city Sarajevo -- having experienced a 44-month siege during the nation's inter-ethnic war in the 1990s -- saw massive rallies in support of Palestinians as Israel waged war in the Gaza Strip following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants.
But the widespread clip of a crowd chanting from beneath an overpass predates the World Cup -- and was recorded in Bosnia.
Reverse image searches revealed that the footage has been online since at least May 29, 2026, when a Facebook page dedicated to supporting the local football club NK Bosna Visoko posted it with a caption expressing support for Palestine (archived here).
The account posted two other videos that day showing the same overpass, labeling it as Sarajevo, in addition to scenes from a football match that AFP determined took place in the city's famed Kosevo Stadium (archived here, here and here).
Bosnian license plates on passing cars, a police shield reading "Policija" and a sign advertising a "pekara" -- the Serbo-Croatian and Bosnian word for bakery -- all corroborate the location.
Searching Google Street View for all overpasses and bakeries along the various routes between Kosevo Stadium and the arena in Visoko where NK Bosna Visoko plays, AFP geolocated the video to the road M-18 in Sarajevo, near the bakery Pekara Mimoza (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the 2026 World Cup here.
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