TikTok star confronts 'fake' fans at the World Cup after they're being accused of being 'paid'
Fan accused of being paid to be at the World Cup have been approached by a TikTok star, and confirmed the rumours to be true.
The World Cup has been extremely exciting on the pitch, especially with a number of surprise results, like Saudi Arabia's win over Argentina.
Unfortunately the stadiums in Qatar haven't always been full however, with many of those watching on tv commenting about the empty seats on social media.
Further criticism of fans came in the form of claims that some had been paid to be in Qatar to show their support for certain teams.
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Australian TikTok star Jon-Bernard Kairouz has now put those claim to the tests to ask Brazil fans if they've been paid to be there, as you can see in the video below.
Kairouz asks the fans, all in Brazil shirts, if they've been paid by FIFA to be there, with everyone giving a very straight forward 'yes' as an answer.
One fan claimed he was an Argentina fan but had been told to support their South American rivals, with another saying he likes cricket not football.
The men are all asked for their favourite player on the Selecao team and unsurprisingly every single one of them favours Neymar above all else.
Asked to name another player other than the PSG star, one said, "To be honest, about this I don't know," and another added, "I don't know."
All of that rather confirming that the fans aren't exactly 100% authentic supporters of the Brazilian national team.
Of course, there is also questions about the legitimacy of calling fans 'fake' just because they aren't of the ethnicity of the country they're supporting.
As well as claims of potential racist overtones of the criticism, the interviews on TikTok have been edited so it's difficult to be sure exactly what was said, when.
"Why you calling them 'fake fans ' it doesn't matter where they're from if they support Brazil they support Brazil who are you to call them 'fake,'" one reply said.
"I'm from Afghanistan and I'm a Brazil football team fan," another responded.
Others pointed out that the answer about being paid by FIFA to be there wasn't just to be a fan but was perhaps because they'd been paid to help but the stadiums and were then given tickets.
"What they meant by saying FIFA paid them to be there is actually most of them are construction workers and they came to Qatar to work," read another comment.
"These guys worked on the construction of the stadiums and were given tickets," wrote another commenter on social media.
Topics: Football, Football World Cup, Brazil, Qatar, Neymar
Ryan Sidle