A comment from the Brazilian footballer has been described as “evidence” that FIFA rigged votes in favor of the Argentine in the latest edition of The Best awards.
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Published: 01/23/2024Updated: 11:48 | 01/23/2024
According to what Lionel Messi Although he won The Best 2023 award for “best player” thanks to the captains' vote, several Facebook pages said his victory was due to the International Football Federation (FIFA) counting “ghost votes.”
The evidence presented was a capture of a comment from Neymar Junior on Instagram, in which he denied having voted for the Argentine star. Translated into Spanish, the Brazilian striker said: “I didn’t vote for anything 😂.”
His words according to some users: They are “evidence that FIFA invented false votes.” so that Messi could win.” But is that so? The answer is no.
The publications showed that Neymar refused to spread the version that there were “ghost voices”. Photo: Facebook screenshot
Neymar's answer was taken out of context
On January 15, 2024, Instagram user @fiqueiputomesmo posted that the voices of Neymar Jr. The choice for the best player in the world had been made: Lionel Messi, in first place; Kylian Mbappé, in second place; and Erling Haaland in third place. He then invited people to take a survey to find out whether they agreed or not.
The Brazilian footballer responded to this statement by saying that he did not take part in the election. “I didn't vote for anything 😂,” he replied, according to the Cambridge translation (“votei em nada não,” in Portuguese).
Therefore, he laughingly denied the information in the Instagram post. Your comment was pinned and The screenshot comes from there.
Actually the Brazilian player had no opportunity to favor anything to his former teammate from Paris Saint Germain (PSG). As FIFA explained, Messi was chosen as the best player because he received more nominations from national team captains compared to Erling Haaland. AND Neymar is not the captain of VerdeamarelaCasemiro is.
Carlos Casemiro, captain of the Brazilian football team, awarded 5 points to Norwegian Haaland; 3 points for the Argentine Messi and 1 point for the French Mbappé.
Humor, humor: Neymar “didn’t deny FIFA”
The Brazilian team's interaction shouldn't have had much of an impact, but it reached this side of the continent where Spanish is spoken. Screenshots of the @fiqueiputomesmo poll and Neymar's response were also shared in satirical publications with the comment that the Brazilian footballer had “denied FIFA”. But the football association's document on Rewards The Best Only the vote of the captains, coaches and the press is described in detail. Doesn't mention Neymar.
Why did Messi win the FIFA The Best 2023 award if he scored the same score as Haaland?
According to FIFA, the best awards are given by national team captains, coaches, specialist journalists and the general public.
Just like Casemiro, voters distribute 9 points among their top 3. They give 5 points to their first candidate; 3 points for second and 1 point for third.
Article 12 of the Best FIFA FOOTBALL AWARDS 2023 Award Rules stipulates that in the event of a tie between male players, the first place will be awarded to the one who received the “5 points” most often in the votes cast by team captains. The national teams. So Messi received 107 nominations for first place from this group, compared to Haaland's 64.
Diploma
Neymar's comment does not constitute evidence that FIFA orchestrated cheating, as the tie-break method was already enshrined in its rules. Since Neymar commented that he didn't vote for Messi (i.e. the screenshot is real), we classify the posts as misleading.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Web editor of Verificador, the data verification unit of La República. She was an editor at PerúCheck, a collaborative fact-checking initiative for the 2021 and 2022 elections. Bachelor's degree in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM).