&Quot;World Cup&Quot;

Does a viral image prove that Argentina-England referee Ismail Elfath "asked for a photo" with Argentina's captain Lionel Messi? No, that's not true: The photo was cropped to remove the captain of the opposing team, who was posing with Messi and the referees for a standard pre-match shot. The image was produced in 2022, before a different match played by…

Does a real photo show Edinburgh Castle displaying Argentine flags ahead of the World Cup match against England on July 15, 2026? No, that's not true: The image appears to have been digitally edited. The Argentine flags were added to an older photo of the Scottish landmark. A reverse image search shows the original photo predates the 2026 World Cup…

Are the captions on a video of Norwegian soccer player Erling Haaland saying he will support Argentina over England in the World Cup accurate? No, that's not true: The captions on the video are fake, and Haaland never said he would support Argentina's Lionel Messi and his teammates over England in the 2026 World Cup semifinals. Video of his postgame…

Do viral screenshots of a Wikipedia article about French soccer referee François Letexier confirm that he is Jewish? No, that's not true: The edits made after the 2026 Egypt-Argentina FIFA World Cup game didn't link to credible sources stating that. Lead Stories found no publicly available information suggesting that Letexier grew up in an "Orthodox Jewish family." The claim appeared…

Did a caption accompanying a viral image correctly claim it showed FIFA President Gianni Infantino making a phone call after Egypt took a 2-0 lead over Argentina? No, that's not true: Infantino did not attend this World Cup game in Atlanta on July 7, 2026. Instead, he was at the Switzerland-Colombia match, held in Vancouver a few hours later on…

Does a viral video show FIFA President Gianni Infantino reacting to Egypt's goal during a July 2026 World Cup game? No, that's not true: The video clip was miscaptioned. The video had been online days earlier, before that match, and showed footage from a different 2026 World Cup match. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) on…

Did a caption below a viral image correctly describe it as showing FIFA President Gianni Infantino looking anxious after Argentine forward Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick during a World Cup match against Egypt? No, that's not true: The image is a screenshot from the telecast of a different game. It was shared in other social media posts ahead of…

Did President Donald Trump post a video of the U.S. men's soccer team player Folarin Balogun showing a "Trump card" in response to his red card during the 2026 FIFA World Cup game? No, that's not true: While Trump did post the text content thanking FIFA for overturning Balogun's red card on his Truth Social account, the post did not…

Did New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani only put Iran's flag on New York subway trains? No, that's not true: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which serves New York City, Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut, decorated trains to represent each of the 48 countries competing in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Each train features the colors of a competing…

Did Dutch soccer coach Ronald Koeman go on a long, racist rant during a 2026 FIFA World Cup postgame press conference after his team lost to Morocco? No, that's not true: The video was posted by an account that self-describes as the "Number 1 AI football ⚽️ account on TikTok!" The video was tagged "Creator labeled as AI-generated." A transcript…