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World Cup fans accused of being ‘fake’ as speculation grows Qatar paid people to be there

November 28, 2022 | | Print Article

An Australian comedian and TikTok star named Jon-Bernard Kairouz confronted Indian and Bangladeshi fans at the World Cup who were wearing Brazilian jerseys, accusing them of being “fake” fans who were paid by the Qataris and FIFA to attend the games.

Videos of fans wearing identical shirts from different countries are surfacing, fueling speculation that the Qataris hired people to attend the World Cup. Kairouz put out a video titled “World Cup Fake Fans” following Brazil’s opening match with Serbia after he spoke to a number of so-called fans on the streets of Qatar. It aired on TikTok Saturday.

Large groups of men, primarily of Indian and Bangladeshi origin, can be seen in videos online wearing the colors of national teams including England, Brazil, Germany, and Argentina. Many concluded from those videos that they had been “hired” by Qatar or FIFA to gin up excitement for the competition, according to the Daily Mail.

While talking with the men, Kairouz asked whether they are from Brazil or not. All of them told the comedian that they were from Bangladesh or India.

(Video Credit: The Daily Mail)

Kairouz went on to ask the alleged fans, “Did FIFA pay you to be here?”

The men unhesitatingly replied “yes.” One said that he is “actually a fan of Argentina” but was paid to support Brazil.

Another outpoint was the fact that when the men were asked to name their favorite player from the Brazilian team, they all named one player, 30-year-old forward Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, known as Neymar. When asked for another player, none of them could name one.

“I don’t know,” one man bluntly replied.

“To be honest, about this I don’t know,” another admitted.

“Actually no, I’m not a fan of football, I’m a cricket fan,” a third supposed fan responded.

The TikTok video was shared with Kairouz’s 13.3 million followers which sparked a huge debate over World Cup fans being fake.

There was a ton of conjecture with some asserting they were paid, while others claimed they were given free tickets after working to build the stadium.

“What they meant by saying FIFA paid them to be there is actually most of them are construction workers and they came to Qatar to work,” one person noted on TikTok. Others repeated that claim.

The video follows other footage that has surfaced showing “fan parades” in Doha, including supporters supposedly from England, Brazil, Argentina, and several other nations, according to the Daily Mail.

Qatar is strongly denying the allegation that they paid individuals to attend the World Cup. They assert that the large Indian population in the country are real football fans who back various national teams from around the world.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is also denying that the fans are fake and called it racist in a statement earlier in November. He heatedly defended the Qatari regime and accused Europeans of double standards, according to the Daily Mail.

“I am reading that these people don’t look English so they can’t cheer for England, they look like Indians. What is that? Can someone who looks Indian not cheer for England, Spain or Germany? You know what it is? It is racist, pure racist,” he said in an hour-long rant.

“I think for what we Europeans have been doing the last 3,000 years we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people. Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel (like) a migrant worker,” Infantino continued.

“Of course I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled. But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated, to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied – because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian so imagine. What do you do then? You try to engage, make friends. Don’t start accusing, fighting, insulting, you start engaging. And this is what we should be doing,” he admonished.

(Video Credit: The Independent)

World Cup CEO Nasser Al Khater pointed out that football was massively popular with Indians in Qatar and rejected the idea any fans were fake.

“We have a lot of genuine supporters in Qatar that are from the south of India that love football and they are genuine fans. They are true fans of football,” he stated.

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