Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dancing vid fans ‘phoney’
QATAR has been accused of paying hundreds of fake fans to sing and dance in videos to promote the World Cup.
The claims were made after images of “parades” in Doha appeared online.
They include supporters who are wearing the colours of England, Brazil, Argentina and several other nations.
The Tiktok channel Qatari Living, which has more than 400,000 followers, has been sharing videos of fans waving flags and chanting songs as they walk along the Corniche in Doha.
The clips suggested groups of supporters are already in the city ahead of the start of the tournament.
But online commentators claimed Qatari authorities were paying migrant workers to dress up as supporters of different nations. One user said: “I swear
they’re paying the workers to be fans. I’ve seen them supporting like seven different countries.”
Others commented on the lack of female supporters in the videos, which appear to have been orchestrated, while some pointed out the instruments appeared to be the same in all of them.
The Qatar Organising Committee was approached to comment on the videos.