Two images showing beer cans hidden beneath cola packaging, have been shared widely on social media platforms with a false claim that it shows how football spectators smuggled alcohol at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
BOOM found the claims to be false. The pictures are old and were clicked before the FIFA World Cup started in Qatar.
The 2022 edition of FIFA World Cup is currently ongoing in Islamic nation Qatar following several restrictions due to religious sentiments. The international governing body for football FIFA announced a ban on alcoholic beverages inside the stadiums during the world cup matches days before the tournament began. However, spectators are allowed to buy alcohol from designated areas, the FIFA statement said.
One of those photos is captioned as, "Fans smuggling beer into Qatar".
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While the other picture of an alcoholic beverage, masquerading as a Coca-cola can, is doing rounds saying, "URGENT! Brazilians find a way to enter the stadiums of Qatar with BEER."
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the photos to be old and have no relation with the ongoing FIFA World Cup happening in Qatar. The pictures were clicked before the football tournament kicked off on November 20, 2022.
Picture 1
A reverse image search led us to the same picture featured on a report from Arabic news outlet Al Arabiya published on November 12, 2015.
The article states, "A smuggler tried to carry nearly 48,000 cans of beers disguised as Pepsi cans into Saudi Arabia over the Al Batha border crossing with the UAE, reported MBC.net."
As per the report, "The attempt was caught and the person apprehended after customs officers detected the latest scam into the exporting beers in into Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is banned."
The other international news outlets such as BBC, The Washington Post, also reported about the incident at that time.
Picture 2
We then performed a reverse image search on another viral image which is claimed to be clicked during the international soccer tournament. The search showed us an Instagram post from June 9, 2022, carrying the same picture.
Click here to view the post.
According to FIFA schedule, the football tournament that started on November 20, 2022, is scheduled to conclude on December 18, 2022.