Old video of namaz offering in Russian stadium shared as visuals from Qatar World Cup

Hyderabad: A video that shows a crowd offering namaz in a stadium is doing the rounds on social media with the claim that it is from the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

A user shared the video using the hashtags #FIFAWorldCup2022, #Qatar2022, and #WorldCup and claimed that namaz was offered before the start of a match at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Click here to see the post.

The video is being widely shared on Twitter and Facebook. (Click here and here to see the Facebook posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter performed a reverse image of the video's keyframe and found a longer video with identical visuals on Getty Images. According to the description, Muslims attended the fourth Republican Iftar during the holy month of Ramadan at Kazan Arena stadium in Tatarstan on 22 June 2016.

We also found an image with a similar visual in an article published by Realnoe Vremyaon on 26 June 2016. It said that over 10,000 Muslims attended Iftar at Kazan Arena stadium which had turned into a grand praying hall.

Finally, we found a longer version of the viral video published on 25 September 2016 by Alif TV, a verified YouTube channel. The description of the video confirmed that it shows the 4th republican iftar in Kazan, Russia.

It is evident that the video dates back to 2016 and is from Russia. Hence, the claim that it shows namaz being offered at a stadium at the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar is misleading.