An Australian comedian has confronted Indian and Bangladeshi fans wearing Brazil jerseys at the World Cup, accusing them of being “fake” as videos of fans wearing the shirts from different countries emerged.
John-Bernard Carros took to the streets of Qatar to confront supporters in a video titled ‘World Cup fake fans’ following Brazil’s opening match with Serbia.
It comes after videos shared online, showing large groups of men, mostly of Indian and Bangladeshi origin, wearing the colors of national teams including England, Brazil, Germany and Argentina, fueled speculation they were being hired by Qatar to create atmosphere. was ‘rented’. competition.
In a video shared on TikTok on Saturday, Carros asks if the ‘fans’ are from Brazil, all the while explaining that they are from Bangladesh or India.
Carroz asks fans: ‘Did FIFA pay you to be here?’
Without hesitation, the fans replied ‘yes’, with one explaining that he is ‘genuinely an Argentina fan’, but he was paid to support Brazil.
Australian comedian Jon-Bernard Carros (pictured, left and right) interviews fans wearing Brazilian jerseys outside a football stadium in Qatar. The men, who were from Bangladesh and India, admitted to having been paid by FIFA to attend the match.
When asked to pick their favorite player from the Brazilian line-up, the men named one player, 30-year-old forward Neymar.
The men were completely taken aback when Carroz asked them to name another player from the countries’ team.
‘I don’t know,’ said one man.
Another said, ‘To be honest, I don’t know about it.’
A third added: ‘Not really, I’m not a football fan, I’m a cricket fan.’
The video was shared with her 13.3 million followers, triggering a huge backlash after Carroz suggested it was a fake.
Some claimed that the men were not explicitly paid to attend matches, but were given free tickets after working to build the stadium.
One user wrote, “They mean to say that FIFA paid them to be there, actually most of them are construction workers and they came to Qatar to work.”
Another user commented, ‘These people worked on the construction of the stadium and were given tickets.’
A third added: ‘A lot of these people worked there in construction and probably got free passes.’
One man said he was ‘genuinely an Argentina fan’ but was paid to support Brazil, before telling Carroz that he was not a football fan, but a cricket fan
All the men named Neymar as their favorite player, but were stunned when Carroz asked them to identify another player in Brazil’s line-up.
Others questioned whether the edited video was true and argued that fans are allowed to support teams from any country.
‘Videos are trimmed and edited between interviews. I’m not sure that’s true,’ commented one user.
Another user wrote, “Why are you calling them ‘fake fans’ it doesn’t matter where they are from, if they support Brazil they support Brazil, you call them ‘fake’ Who are the ones?”
‘I’m from Afghanistan and I’m a fan of the Brazil football team,’ added another.
A TikTok user, who is from Bangladesh, explained that Brazil and Argentina are the country’s two favorite football teams, hence why there are so many Bangladeshi Brazil supporters in Qatar.
It comes after footage emerged of various ‘fan parades’ in Doha, including celebrations by supporters from England, Brazil, Argentina and several other countries.
But fans reacted with skepticism and some accused Qatari officials of paying migrant workers to dress up in support of various countries, something Qatar strongly denies.
Qatar has denied claims it paid for fake fans, arguing that football was hugely popular with its Indian community
The Qatari government claims that the country has a large number of Indian football fans who support various national teams from around the world.
Gianni Infantino earlier this month dismissed suggestions fans mocked him as racist in a press where he defended the Qatari regime and accused Europeans of double standards.
In an extraordinary one-hour speech, the FIFA president said: ‘I’m reading that these people don’t look English so they can’t be cheering for England, they look like Indians. what is that? Can’t an Indian looking person cheer for England, Spain or Germany?
‘you know what it is? It is racist, pure racist.
He also said: ‘I think we Europeans should apologize for the next 3,000 years before we start giving people moral lessons for what they’ve been doing for the last 3,000 years.
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‘Today I feel Qatari. I feel Arabic today. Today I feel African. I feel gay today. Today I am feeling handicapped. Today I feel like a migrant laborer.
‘Of course I’m not Qatari, I’m not Arab, I’m not African, I’m not gay, I’m not disabled. But I do think so, because I know what it means to be discriminated against, bullied and bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country. I was bullied as a kid – because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian so imagine that.
‘what do you do then? You try to connect, make friends. Don’t start accusing, fighting, insulting, you start getting confused. And that’s what we should do.
World Cup CEO Nasser Al Khater claimed that football was hugely popular among Indians in Qatar and rejected the idea that any fans were fake.
He said: ‘We have a lot of genuine supporters in Qatar who are from the south of India who love football and they are genuine fans.
‘He is a true fan of football.’
