Bangladeshi media outlets spread false claims about Yamal, Trump handshake at World Cup
There have been recent rumors that following Spain’s FIFA World Cup win, Spanish footballer Lamine Yamal did not shake hands with President Donald Trump during the award ceremony. Outlets have published a video as evidence supporting the claim. However, a fact-check by Dismislab found that as President Trump was placing a medal around Yamal’s neck during the post-final award ceremony, the two men were in fact seen shaking hands.
A video uploaded to the YouTube channel of the US news outlet “Fox 29 Philadelphia” clearly shows Trump and Yamal shaking hands. The false claim was based on a comparatively unclear video filmed from a specific angle.
A video circulated on the Facebook page of the Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Inqilab claimed that no handshake took place. Graphics in the video read, “Lamine Yamal did not shake hands with Trump!” Text below that read, “Viral video.” At the time of publishing this report, the video had been viewed more than 6 million times, had received more than 135,000 reactions and had been shared by users more than 9,000 times.
The video published by Inqilab was also downloaded and reposted from multiple Facebook profiles — 1, 2, 3.
The video was additionally posted under the same claim on several Facebook pages that identify themselves as news outlets, including Nagorik Protidin, BBM News, Time Television, Bangla Lead, Green TV and Peoples News.
In the circulated video, the scene is filmed from a slightly elevated angle and from behind. As a result, when Yamal steps in front of Donald Trump, the camera’s position causes Yamal’s back and body to fully block the view of the section where the two men’s hands meet. Because the hands remain hidden, the moment of the handshake is not clearly visible in this particular video.
However, a video of the same event filmed from a different angle, uploaded to the YouTube channels of the US news outlets “Fox 29 Philadelphia” and “Fox 5 New York”, provides a clear view of the moment.
The video shows that after receiving his medal from the president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, Yamal steps toward Donald Trump, and the two shake hands. During the handshake, Trump is also seen patting Yamal’s arm with his hand. Yamal then moves on toward the other guests on stage.
Footage of the event was also found on the YouTube channels of several other international news outlets. Videos published by “Diario AS”, a Madrid-based Spanish sports newspaper, and “Sports TV”, a Portugal-based premium sports television network, likewise show the handshake taking place.
In essence, the false claim that Lamine Yamal and Donald Trump did not shake hands spread across social media and news outlets because of a visual illusion created by footage filmed from one specific camera angle.
All social media captions, quotations, and news excerpts in this article have been translated into English from the languages in which they were originally posted or published.
