Lionel Messi won the esteemed ‘Golden Ball’ in the recently concluded FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar, for his performance throughout the tournament. The Argentinian captain led from the front as the team clinched their first FIFA World Cup title in 36 years.
Against this backdrop, a viral image showing the FIFA president Gianni Infantino is doing the rounds on social media. Many users have shared his image, claiming that FIFA has proposed to name a stadium in every country after Messi to commemorate his World Cup victory.
A Facebook user posted the viral picture with a caption: মেসির বিশ্বকাপ জয়কে স্বরণীয় করে রাখতে, বিশ্বের সকল দেশের একটি করে স্টেডিয়াম মেসির নামে নামকরণ করার প্রস্তাব দিয়েছে ফিফা। জিয়ান্নি ইনফান্তিনো [ফিফা প্রেসিডেন্ট] #SO10 (English translation: To make Messi’s World Cup win memorable, FIFA has proposed to name a stadium in all the countries of the world after Messi. Gianni Infantino [FIFA President] #SO10)
You can check the post here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral picture, and found it to be false.
Running a Google Keyword Search for the viral claim, we traced multiple websites informing that FIFA had made a similar request to all the countries for the Brazilian football legend Pele.
The news article, published by Sky News — dated January 2, 2023 and titled “FIFA to ask every country to name a stadium in honour of football great Pele, Gianni Infantino says” — informs that Infantino attended Pele’s funeral in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and told reporters that he would ask every country in the world to name one of their football stadiums after Pele.
Many media platforms like Sportstar, Eurosport, Live mint, etc., have carried the similar news reports.
Also, a YouTube video on the official channel of Guardian football, dated January 2, 2023 and titled: Fifa’s Gianni Infantino will ask every country to name stadium in honour of Pelé, shows Infantino’s interview with the press where he’s making the claim.
We did not find even a single credible news source linking the renaming of stadiums to Messi’s name. Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral picture’s claim that FIFA president will ask every country to name a stadium after Messi to honour his World Cup victory is false.
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