False: Saudi Arabian football players will each receive a Rolls Royce as a gift for their win against Argentina in the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

By: Sanyukta Dharmadhikari
December 5 2022

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Context

An Instagram reel posted by the user "@nicksaantalks" on November 25, 2022, claims that each player of the Saudi Arabian football team, including those on the bench, will receive a Rolls Royce car courtesy of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, for their historic win over Argentina in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The claim went viral across social media platforms shortly after the victory over Argentina on November 22, with similar posts by prominent and highly followed Instagram pages getting as many as 1.5 million likes. 

In Fact

On November 25, UK-based newspaper the Express initially reported that as a reward to commemorate their surprising win, "Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud will present each of the players with an RM6 million Rolls Royce Phantom when they return from Qatar." News outlets in other countries then reported this claim. On November 28, the Express updated the story and clarified that no such promise had been made, but the claim persisted on social media.

A deep dive into the claim revealed that one of the earliest sources of the rumor seems to be a Pakistan-based dentist named Awab Alvi, who has a verified account on Twitter. On the day of Saudi Arabia's win against the South American team, November 22, 2022, he tweeted, "BREAKING: MBS has announced a Rolls Royce Phantom to each team member having defeated ARG #FIFAWorldCup #SAvsARG #SaudiArabia serves up the first major upset of the #FIFAWorldCup." When a Twitter user asked him whether he had any confirmation, Alvi replied with an "😝" emoji, possibly indicating that he knew the claim was inaccurate and it was not to be taken seriously. Nonetheless, the claim was subsequently reported as genuine by news media and social media users.

However, this is not true. While the Saudi Arabian government did announce a public holiday for the country to commemorate the win against Argentina, it made no official announcement about rewards to the players, such as Rolls Royce cars. This claim was also officially denied by Saleh Al-Shehri, a player on the Saudi Arabian football team, as well as its coach, Hervé Renard, as reported by Reuters. 

Journalist Khalaf Al-Dossry, a journalist with Saudi-based news website Sabq, tweeted a clip from the pre-match press conference on November 25, 2022, ahead of Saudi Arabia’s game with Poland. In the clip, sports journalist Andrew Dillon asked Al-Shehri if it was true that as a reward for their win against Argentina, "each player has been rewarded with a Rolls Royce Phantom." Al-Sehri responded, "It is not true… We are here to serve our country and do our best, so that is our biggest achievement." 

Renard also responded to the journalist's question: "Can I also answer as well? We have a very serious federation. We have a very serious ministry of sport. And it is not time to get something at this moment. We have only won one game, and we still have two important games. We are hoping for more. So there is nothing true about this comment. We have only played one game."

Verdict

An unfounded and unverified claim that every member of Saudi Arabia's national football team received a Rolls Royce car after their win against Argentina in the 2022 FIFA World Cup was shared on social media but has been dismissed by the Saudi football team. A news report making the same claim was retracted and corrected. Therefore we have marked this claim as false.