Two Albanian-language media outlets have published articles claiming that the Kosovo national football team coach, Franco Foda, spoke after the match with Turkey, saying that ""We saw that Turkey's starting lineup was released during the day and we made all our preparations based on that."
The article with this claim was found published by online media in Albanian.indexonline.net"and "botasot.info".
The article published on "indeksonline.net" bears the title "Foda after the loss to Turkey: The release of the lineup affected our preparations", while the one on "botasot.info" has the title "Foda 'blames' journalists after defeat to Turkey".
The truth?
After verification of the facts conducted by hibrid.info, it was confirmed that Foda did not issue such a statement.
Initially, on April 1, this claim was published on the social network "Reddit" by the account "NaiveCod6365"within the framework of the forum"r/FenerbahceSK".
This claim was then published on X by the account "Turkish Scout". The author of this account, in addition to making the claim, criticized the publication of tactical details and formations before matches, calling this a harmful practice for teams.
In the second part of the description of this post it says "I said MANY times that it's wrong to share our squad & tactics for some likes but we have many 'journalists' who can't think" ( ""I've said MANY times that it's wrong to share our formation and tactics for a few likes, but we have too many 'journalists' who can't think").
Then, on Wednesday (April 8) the Albanian-language page "LIG Sports" on Facebook, has published the post received from the "Turk Scout" account on X.
Original post published by the "LIG Sport" Facebook page:
Kosovo coach Franco Foda (59)
"We saw that Turkey's starting lineup was released during the day and we made all our preparations based on that."
"I have said many times that it is wrong to divide our formation and tactics for a few likes, but we have too many 'journalists' who don't know how to think."
So, this site has claimed that these statements were made by Foda.
This content then found its way into several Albanian-language media outlets such as "indexonline.net"and "botasot.info". These two media outlets did not write where this statement was published, or where Foda spoke.
What did Foda say after the match with Turkey, which Kosovo lost with a score of 0:1 in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers?
After the match, Foda gave an interview to the public television RTK, which we found published on information portals such as "gazetaexpress.com"and "zeri.info".
"I had my own reason for coming to Kosovo, the goal was to qualify for the European Championship, tonight we failed. Everything went faster than we thought. Our goal remains the European Championship," he told "RTK".
"No, I have no plans to leave Kosovo, I like the country and the people," he added.
Furthermore, he said that they are upset, indicating that qualification was also possible against Turkey.
"We are all upset, we all wanted to qualify, and this was possible even against Turkey," he said.
Hibrid.info also found another interview coach Foda gave to the medium. Clan of Kosovo.
"The difference was that Turkey scored a goal and we didn't. At one point in defense we weren't as attentive as we should have been. Even though we tried throughout the game, we couldn't equalize and we had some chances that we could have taken better," Foda said.
Foda said that the entire team is disappointed, but added that he told the players that they can feel proud of what has been achieved so far.
"The team has represented the state and the people of this country in the best possible way. The team has also seen that if you play with heart and will as a team, you can achieve a lot. So what remains is to move forward and the next qualifications, if we work with the qualities we have then we can achieve a lot", Foda continued.
So, Foda has not issued any statements regarding the publication of Turkey's lineup, "blaming" the journalists, as was claimed.
The first publication, the one on Reddit, was made a day after Kosovo lost 0:1 at Fadil Vokrri. The match was decisive for qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
Analyze:
Several Albanian-language media outlets published an incorrect claim that Kosovo's football coach, Franco Foda, commented on the "leakage" of Turkey's lineup before the match on March 31.
Verification by hibrid.info showed that this statement was not made by Foda. The claim originated from a post on Reddit and then on the X platform, where it was distributed as an opinion by a user, not as an official statement.
Later, the Albanian-language Facebook page "LIG Sport" presented this content as a quote from Foda, and this was taken without verification by media outlets such as "indeksonline.net" and "botasot.info".
In reality, Foda's statements after the match to media outlets such as RTK and Klan Kosova do not contain any comment on the publication of the lineup or blame for the journalists.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses content published by Albanian media as "Unverified Content".
Reasoning:
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.