FIFA World Cup: Japan's team did not litter dressing room after losing to Costa Rica

Hyderabad: Social Media users are sharing photos of the littered dressing rooms with the claim that it shows Japan's dressing room after their 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica in the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Several Facebook users have shared photos with the caption, "Japan's dressing room after Costa Rica match."

Click here, here and here to see the posts.

The claim comes as a surprise, considering the praise that Japanese fans had received for cleaning the Khalifa International Stadium after Japan beat Germany 2-1 in the ongoing FIFA World Cup on 23 November.

The Japanese team was also complimented by FIFA when their dressing room was found spotless after the match with Germany.

Fact Check

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found the same photos in an article published by The Post Internazionale on 27 March 2022. It reported that after Italy had failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup following their defeat against North Macedonia, the Italian national football players had left the dressing room in a mess at Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo, Italy.

Further, we found viral photos carried by several Italian websites. They also reported that the mess seen in the photos was done by Italian national football players after their defeat against North Macedonia. (Click here, here and here to read the reports.)

As per Daily Mail, Leonardo Bonucci, the captain of the Italy football team had apologized on behalf of his team. He said, "It was a big mistake, next time, we'll pay more attention. We were very disappointed and we didn't think that these details make a difference sometimes. We'll pay more attention in the next matches, we apologize",

Finally, we also came across a report by the Daily Mail, which said Japan's supporters stayed behind to clean up the stadium despite losing to Costa Rica. We also found several photos posted by Getty images that showed Japan fans and a team member clearing rubbish in the stands and the dressing room after the Group E match between Japan and Costa Rica at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Doha, Qatar.

It is evident that the viral photos showing a littered dressing room were not left by the Japan football team after their defeat against Costa Rica in the FIFA World Cup 2022. Hence, the claim is misleading.