Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
An image has been published showing preparations for a choreography, featuring the figure of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, accompanied by the claim that Kosovo fans are organizing a choreography with anti-Ottoman content, on the eve of the final play-off match between Kosovo and Turkey for qualification for the 2026 World Cup, which is expected to take place on Tuesday (March 31) at the "Fadil Vokrri" stadium, starting at 20:45 p.m.
The content with this claim was posted on Monday (March 30) on TikTok by an account named "the.king01.3” and in “X” from the account named “PushSport".
On Tuesday (March 31) the same claim was published in articles by the Turkish-language media outlet "SonDakika.com"and from the medium"I Haberler.co", on the Russian-language news site.
What is the truth?
Hibrid.info found that the images used to make the current claim are old and not related to the match that is expected to take place tonight at 20:45.
Hibrid.info has researched using the automated search program "InVID" to find more information about these images.
The results from this search have revealed other content clarifying that the newly raised claim was published with old footage (see here and here). The media outlet "koha.net" even published an article denying the veracity of the claim that the choreography is current (see here).
In the content where these claims are refuted, it was revealed that this is footage from the preparation of one of the choreographies by the Mitrovica fan group "Torcida" in 2022, before a basketball match between Trepça and Tirana.
Choreography during the basketball match KB Trepça – KB Tirana
Therefore, based on these suspicions and because the search through “InVID” did not show where these images were taken from, the research by hibrid.info was continued by manually searching the KB Trepça fans’ channel on Youtube, “@torcidamitrovice1984” (see here).
Among the content published on this channel, a video was found that in the first image had the figures of the personalities that appear in the above choreography, which is confirmed to have appeared in a basketball game in 2022.
After clicking on this video material, published on October 25, 2022, shows images of the preparations for these choreographies before the aforementioned match.
Two more images were found in this video, through which the claim addressed in this article was published.
Consequently, based on these findings, it is confirmed that the claim of anti-Ottoman choreography for today's Kosovo-Turkey match was presented through old footage.
Analyze:
Through several images from the preparation of a choreography featuring the figure of the national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, along with other national visual elements, it has been claimed that Kosovo fans are organizing a choreography with anti-Ottoman content, on the eve of the Kosovo-Turkey football match.
Hibrid.info has researched these claims and found that these images are old and date back to 2022, during the preparations of the Mitrovica fan group "Torcida" for a basketball match between Trepça and Tirana.
Therefore, based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content as "Manipulation of facts" and "Disinformation".
Reasoning:
“Factual manipulation” is a rating given to informational content that uses facts known to be accurate but interprets them in a distorted manner. These reports typically use accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, thereby misleading consumers of media content about the actual meaning of the facts presented.
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.