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| - Fact Check: Have Croatia footballers donated their prize money?
A president hailed as the "Queen of Hugs"; a stellar dream run into the World Cup final, defeating Iceland, Denmark, Russia and England. Croatia has had quite a few reasons to capture international headlines in the past weeks.
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India Today Fact Check
A president hailed as the "Queen of Hugs"; a stellar dream run into the World Cup final, defeating Iceland, Denmark, Russia and England. Croatia has had quite a few reasons to capture international headlines in the past weeks.
If all that was not enough, social media has now gone abuzz with speculations that the Croats have given away their prize money of $28 million to underprivileged children. Netizens are gaga over what's been eulogized as the team's philanthropy. Even business tycoons like Anand Mahindra re-tweeted one such post enthusiastically.
This is not just a Sports team...this is a team of Life Coaches... https://t.co/0PjlAfgP9s anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) July 24, 2018
Croatia have decided to donate all their £21m prize money and bonuses to underprivileged children so that they can go on summer holidays.
???? pic.twitter.com/obpDMJcwRB Bolarinwa Olajide (@iambolar) July 19, 2018
The Croatia national team are going to donate all revenue they have received during the World Cup to a children's charity.
Class! ?? pic.twitter.com/faxquQGz9K Team FA (@TeamFA) July 17, 2018
But India Today's fact-check team has found the Croats have made no such donation.
The speculations, the team discovered, went viral after they were carried by popular websites like t-online.de of Germany and SPORTbible. On their part, the portals attributed the so-called information to a Facebook post purportedly by the Croatia team and its coach Zlatko Dalic.
A thorough research of several other media outlets revealed that authoritative sources in Croatia have themselves denied reports about the football team gifting away its prize money.
In a July 19 talk-show anchored by host Damir Smrtic on Croatian broadcaster HRT, team spokesperson Tomislav Pacak issued a firm denial about the alleged donation.
"I certainly would have expected you to have good sources as a national TV house. This is absolutely absurd information that has been published through social networks," Pacak was quoted by Index.hr, another media outlet, as saying.
So, the Croats might have tested positive for their team spirit after the World Cup loss, but they certainly didn't spirit the runner-up cash away to charity.
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