Old PSG victory celebrations misrepresented online as World Cup vandalism in Paris
- Published on July 15, 2026 at 03:58
- 3 min read
- By Vishesh SINGH, AFP India
Violent celebrations overshadowed France's quarter-final victory over Morocco at the FIFA World Cup on July 9, but social media posts claiming to show footage of related fire and rioting in Paris are false. The videos were filmed weeks earlier during unrest following Paris Saint-Germain's (PSG) UEFA Champions League win on May 31.
"Fire reported near Eiffel tower amid Paris celebrations," claims an Instagram post shared on July 10, 2026.
The attached footage shows a plume of smoke near the Eiffel Tower.
Another Instagram post from July 10 shares a video compilation of rioting on the streets.
"Paris is burning as the Moroccan migrants have started riots after Morocco lost to France by 2-0 in the World Cup knockouts," reads text superimposed on the video.
The visuals circulated online after France advanced to the World Cup semi-finals after beating Morocco 2-0 in a quarter-final played in the US state of Massachusetts (archived link).
The resulting celebrations turned deadly in France and descended into chaos on the streets of London.
A 17-year-old girl died in northern France after falling from a truck during post-match celebrations. The tragedy came as hundreds of people danced in the streets of Paris following the victory, watched by thousands of police on security duties (archived link).
France had urged its football fans to be responsible after previous high-profile matches led to unrest. Morocco won independence from France in 1956 and has a mostly settled relationship with the former colonial power, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Moroccans or French citizens of Moroccan descent (archived link).
In central London, British police battled football fans early on July 10. One police officer was injured and four people were arrested following what police described as “violent disorder".
Xenophobic comments in Arabic and Hindi from users on Facebook, X and Instagram sharing the supposed visuals of the unrest in Paris suggest they believed they were related to the World Cup.
But they are not -- the clips predate France's quarter-final victory by several weeks.
Footage from PSG win
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video of the Eiffel Tower led to the same footage published in an Instagram post on May 31 (archived link).
A reverse image search for keyframes from the second video surfaced an Instagram post published by The Wall Street Journal on June 1 (archived link).
Both captions indicate they depict unrest that marred Paris Saint-Germain's victory over Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League in late May.
Police detained 890 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted on the night of May 30 following the local team's victory. Authorities said a man in his twenties died in a motorbike crash in the capital (archived link).
Both clips are credited to freelance journalist Luc Auffret, who confirmed to AFP that he filmed them on May 31 amid clashes following PSG's victory.
"It shows the Eiffel Tower momentarily shrouded in smoke for several minutes following a fire nearby, on the banks of the Seine, whilst there were numerous incidents of tension that evening," Auffret told AFP on July 10.
He also said he filmed other rioting videos that were later distributed by The Wall Street Journal via social media intelligence company Storyful.
AFP has debunked several other claims about the 2026 World Cup.
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