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Many news sites (1, 2, 3) claim that Qatar is hiring hundreds of fake fans for the 2022 World Cup.

Guardian

Fans who have travelled to Qatar as part of a controversial paid-for supporters programme have been told by Qatari authorities that their cash has been cut.

The Fan Leader Network is a scheme run by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the Qatari agency responsible for the World Cup. It has recruited supporters from around the globe, offering travel and accommodation and a place at the World Cup opening ceremony in return for enthusiasm and positive social media content. But the Guardian can reveal that a per diem payment for food and drink, upon which some supporters were depending, was cancelled just as fans were packing to travel to the Gulf.

Members of the Fan Leader Network from two European countries said their payments had been cancelled three days ago and that authorities had blamed the decision on the bad press which followed the revelation that fans were being paid.

Daily Mail Australia:

Qatar has been accused of paying hundreds of 'fake fans' to sing and dance in a series of choreographed videos ahead of the World Cup.

Footage has emerged of various 'fan parades' in Doha ahead of the tournament's big kick-off this Sunday, including celebrations featuring supporters supposedly from England, Brazil, Argentina and several other nations.

[...]

But fans reacted with scepticism and some accused the Qatari authorities of paying migrant workers to dress up in support of different nations.

The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee rejected claims the fans were fake and said 'their passion for football is authentic.'

From the looks of the videos about this topic, it seems that their main ethnicity is Malayali (I am one myself). It makes sense to me, as with the Kerala Gulf dispora, but at the same time it is surprising that it didn't generate the same international interest.

However, browsing social media which is mainly used by Qatari locals (e.g. the subreddit of Qatar), many people say that this is fake news. See Reddit, for example.

Hence, the question, are there actually fake fans who are coming to fill stadiums and appear in videos of the world cup?

Oddthinking
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Reine Abstraktion
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    Are you seriously asking "do huge multinational corporations pay actors to appear in adverts"? – DJClayworth Nov 21 '22 at 19:16
  • I've reverted the title: the current text talks only about the videos, if you want to ask about something else, you need to find and quote an appropriate claim. – IMSoP Nov 21 '22 at 21:10
  • See 3rd link @IMSoP – Reine Abstraktion Nov 21 '22 at 21:15
  • You need to be more specific than an unnamed link: name the source, explain the context, and quote the relevant part. – IMSoP Nov 21 '22 at 23:15
  • You have edited the question back to be about *filling stadiums*, but I can't see anywhere in the linked references where this claim is made. It is all about videos/ceremonies. Please quote such a claim. – Oddthinking Nov 22 '22 at 11:26
  • I would really like you to fix it, so we can re-open. I am curious to hear the bottom of this. – Oddthinking Nov 22 '22 at 11:27
  • [here](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/18/fans-paid-to-attend-world-cup-by-qatar-have-daily-allowance-cancelled). If fans are paid to attend, wouldn't they be staying in the stadium seats? Where else would they go – Reine Abstraktion Nov 22 '22 at 11:39
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    @TrystwithFreedom: It says "offering travel and accommodation and a place at the World Cup opening ceremony in return for enthusiasm and positive social media content." This is consistent with the claim made in the other sites that they appeared in the (promotional videos of) parades without being paid to attend matches. – Oddthinking Nov 22 '22 at 15:09
  • Did any Qatari official ever claim that these were actual fans? I can't imagine anyone making such a ridiculous claim. These look like just random videos of individuals of South Asian descent walking about dressed in the gear of various countries. Couldn't it just have been some sort of dress rehearsal (for e.g. crowd control and other purposes) for the actual event? –  Dec 01 '22 at 03:13
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    When was the last time an official of an event has come out and said "yesss these fans... are real authentic fans!" – Reine Abstraktion Dec 01 '22 at 07:12

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