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| - Fact Check: Underwater Messi cut-out is not from Kerala at all - It's from Lakshadweep
Ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, football fans in Kerala adorned streets in the state with cut-outs of famous soccer players. Following Argentina's victory over France in the World Cup final, a video of one such cut-out went viral claiming that it is from Kerala. However, the video is from Lakshadweep's Kavaratti.
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India Today Fact Check
The cut-out was installed underwater by Argentina fans in Kavaratti, Lakshadweep. All participants were locals, as per Mohammed Swadikh, a vlogger who organised this.
Ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, football fans in Kerala adorned streets in the state with cut-outs of famous soccer players. In fact, so famous were these cut-outs of players like Neymar Jr, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi, that even the official Twitter account of FIFA gave the state a shout-out.
Following Argentina’s victory over France in the World Cup final, a video of one such cut-out went viral. And for good reason. The video supposedly shows fans of the Argentine squad in Kerala placing a cut-out of Lionel Messi underwater. It was shared with captions like, “Kerala's (India) Craziest Football fans have proved it again... They had promised if #Argentina reaches the Finals, they'll place Messi's cutout under the sea among reefs and they did it... I think #Messi should visit Kerala.”
AFWA’s investigation found that this video is from Kavaratti, Lakshadweep, not from Kerala.
AFWA PROBE
We reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and that led us to several news reports about it. According to the New Indian Express, this video was shot at Kavaratti in Lakshadweep by Mohammed Swadikh, a physical education teacher, vlogger, and a fan of Messi and the Argentine football squad. Before the semifinal match between Argentina and Croatia, Swadikh declared on social media “If my team wins, I'll plant a Lionel Messi cut-out in the sea.” And he kept his word.
Per the report, Swadikh sought the help of the Lakshadweep Scuba Adventure team, a group of 15, who organise scuba diving for tourists who visit the island. To further clarify this, AFWA spoke to Mohammed Swadikh.
He said. “I was born and brought up in Lakshadweep. We depend on Kerala for education, treatment and to buy things. I have done my graduation from MES College in Aluva, Kerala. The team that was involved with me to install Messi’s cut-out comprise natives of Lakshadweep. Only local people from Lakshadweep participated in this and no Keralites were involved with us.”
He further said, “After my team [Argentina] reached the final, with the help of Ammathi Scuba and Lakshadweep adventures we took Messi’s four-metre-high cut-out to the Wall of Wonder area and installed it among the rocks and coral reefs,” adding that they had “arranged many programmes to welcome the FIFA World Cup. We erected cut-outs of Messi, Neymar and Ronaldo. Every time we want to do something special, we have done it.”
It is worth noting that some news organisations, including India Today and Business Today had erroneously reported that this video was from Kerala. This error has been rectified since.
So, while Kerala has its fair share of enthusiastic football fans (and Argentina fans in particular), this feat was carried out by fans of Messi in Lakshadweep.
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