Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
The recent group stage clash between Japan and Costa Rica at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which ended in an unexpected win for the latter, led to a set of photos being widely circulated on social media, claimed to be the Japanese team’s dressing room post the match. The messy room has evoked reactions of surprise across social media, especially considering the reputation of the Japanese team and its fans to clean the locker rooms and the stands post their matches.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here and here.
Fact check
Newschecker first did a keyword search for “Japan dressing room Costa Rica”, which did not throw up any relevant news reports of such an incident.
We then ran a reverse image search, which brought us to this Sport Bible report, dated March 27, 2022, headlined “Video shows utter mess in Italian dressing room after North Macedonia defeat”.
According to the report, when Italy lost out on World Cup qualification following its shock defeat to North Macedonia, the disappointment carried over to the dressing room where the Italians were throwing bottles and food around, turning the Palermo dressing room “into a scene that resembled a landfill site.”
A comparison of the viral image and the photo in the report (left) shows that it is the same set of images.
Taking a cue from this, we then ran a keyword search for “Italy dressing room North Macedonia”, which led us to multiple reports on the incident and sharing the same photos. They can be seen here, here, here and here.
These reports led us to this tweet by @Football_Tweet, which attached the video of the untidy dressing room.
Later news reports revealed that Italy’s star defender Leonardo Bonucci had apologised on behalf of the national team after leaked photos showed the pathetic state they left their dressing room in after their FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifiers play-off defeat to North Macedonia, confirming that the viral photos are of the dressing room post Italy’s upset defeat.
Conclusion
A set of photos showing a dirty dressing room is being falsely claimed as the Japan football team’s post their defeat to Costa Rica in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Result: False
Sources
Sport Bible report, March 27, 2022
Tweet by Football_Tweet, March 27, 2022
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
