AI-generated video does not show South African flag bearer tripping during World Cup opening ceremony
- Published on July 13, 2026 at 17:00
- 3 min read
- By Monique NGO MAYAG, AFP Senegal
- Translation and adaptation Tendai DUBE, AFP South Africa
Thousands of foreign nationals have been repatriated from South Africa in response to protests by locals calling for the expulsion of undocumented migrants. After South Africa lost its opening match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, social media users mocked the national team and shared footage claiming to show the country's flag-bearer falling during the tournament’s opening ceremony. However, the clip was generated with artificial intelligence. No incident like it was broadcast.
“A South African flag-bearer dramatically fell during the opening ceremony just before the South Africa vs Mexico match and the clip instantly went viral online”, reads an X post published on June 13, 2026.
The post includes screenshots showing an individual wrapped in the South African flag rolling on the pitch inside a stadium.
Although replies to the post were mixed, some called it karma for the unrest in South Africa.
Similar claims appeared in French, sharing a 16-second clip of a man carrying the South African flag. He stumbles, falls, gets up and keeps walking. The purported scene also prompted mockery on social media in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria.
The posts circulated after the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 11 with hosts Mexico beating South Africa in the opening match at the Estadio Azteca (archived here).
South Africa's loss was celebrated by many on social media, reflecting growing resentment towards the country as it experiences a resurgence of xenophobic violence targeting nationals from other African countries (archived here).
Across the country, groups of South Africans staged marches and door-to-door visits instructing undocumented migrants to leave by June 30. Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria and Mozambique began repatriating their nationals ahead of the unofficial deadline (archived here).
However, the clip of the flag-bearer falling during the official World Cup flag ceremony is not real.
Visual inconsistencies
Various searches of the clip established it did not appear in any credible coverage of the widely followed tournament. Had such a stumble really occurred on such a world stage, it would almost certainly have been widely documented.
A video on FIFA's official YouTube channel shows that the flag ceremony was significantly different from what appeared in the viral clip (archived here).
The beige carpet used for the flag parade is bordered by blue stripes on both sides, while the carpet in the AI clip only has one noticeably narrower blue stripe.
In the official footage, South Africa's flag is also carried by a woman with her hair pulled back in a bun. The X clip shows a man wearing a hat.
The same woman flag-bearer can be seen in AFP photographs from the ceremony.
AFP photographer Alfredo Estrella, who covered the opening ceremony from pitchside, confirmed that no such incident occurred.
“I was on the field during the opening ceremony and at no point did I see the South African flag-bearer fall,” Estrella told AFP Fact Check.
Furthermore, analysis of the full clip using the AI detection tool Hive Moderation found, with more than 94 percent confidence, that the footage was likely AI-generated.
AFP Fact Check originally debunked the claim in French.
Read other World Cup-related fact-checks here, here and here.
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