Fact Check: Fans DID NOT sing in support of Palestine during FIFA World Cup, this clip is from Morocco
claim: The video is being shared to claim that it shows football fans singing a song in support of Palestine at the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The video is an old one. It shows visuals from the Mohamed V stadium in Casablanca, Morocco when Moroccan football club Raja Casablanca played against Palestinian club Hilal Al-Qud in 2019.
How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for news reports and videos of the incident.
The search led us to the same video uploaded on YouTube on 30 September 2019, mentioning that the fans were singing for Palestine in Morocco.
What about the ongoing World Cup?: Neither Israel nor Palestine are playing in the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. However, there have been reports of Israeli nationals facing hostility from Qatari, Palestinian, and Arabic citizens.
Taking a cue from this, we ran another keyword search that led us to a longer and clearer version of the viral video – published on YouTube on 24 September 2019 – which mentioned the location as Stade Mohammed V.
Its title and description said that fans sang a song in support of the Palestinian people during a football match between Moroccan club Raja Athletic and Palestinian club Hilal Al-Quds.
What do news reports say?: Using the information gathered, we ran a keyword search in Arabic for more details regarding the incident.
An article on Al Jazeera's Arabic website from 2019 mentioned that the incident took place during the Mohammed VI Champions Cup, when fans of Morocco's Raja Athletic club sang in support of the Palestinian people.
It also carried a video of the stands, where people could be heard singing the same song as the one from the viral video.
The incident was also reported by ArabicPost, which said that the video was taken during a match between the two clubs on 23 September 2019.
Where was the video taken?: We looked for photos of the Mohammed V stadium in Morocco's Casablanca, and saw similarities between them and the viral video.The same structure can be seen in the video, as well as pictures of the stadium on Google Maps.
Fact: The video is not related to the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar. It dates back to September 2019, and shows people singing a song to support Palestinians in Casablanca, Morocco.
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