No Rolls Royce for Saudi Arabia players, reports by nat’l, int’l media outlets false – Alt News

Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win against Argentina in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, speculation about each member of the Saudi Arabian squad being awarded a Rolls Royce started circulating on social media. Several Indian media houses including NDTV, TV9 Bharatvarsh, India.com, Wion, APN News, Free Press Journal, editorji and Hindustan Times reported that the players of team Saudi Arabia were being rewarded with a Rolls Royce after defeating Argentina. (Archives of reports- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

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Times Now Navbharat tweeted a clip of their reportage of this news. (Archive)

Zee MP-Chhattisgarh also tweeted an image of the Saudi Arabia team with the caption “FIFA World Cup: सऊदी अरब के सभी खिलाड़ियों को मिलेगी रॉल्स रॉयस की कार, अर्जेंटीना पर जीत के लिए मिलेगा तोहफा…” (Translation: All players of Saudi Arabia will get Rolls Royce cars, gift will be given for victory over Argentina). (Archive)

Among international news outlets, Daily Mail in a report claimed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud would present each of his nation’s newest heroes with a Rolls Royce after they fought back from 0-1 down to beat Lionel Messi’s side 2-1. Here is an archive of their report.

The Daily Mail report cites a Malay Mail report on the same issue. The report is headlined ‘Saudi Arabia royalty gives Rolls Royce to football players for their win in World Cup group match’. Here is an archive to the report.

Bleacher Report said in a tweet, ‘Saudi Arabia players are being rewarded after their historic win over Argentina’. (Archive)

Daily Mirror also reported on this in an article with the headline, ‘Saudi Arabia’s World Cup heroes to be given Rolls Royce reward after Argentina win’.

Fact Check

User @kalafaldossry, a journalist for Sabq, an electronic newspaper, tweeted a clip from a press conference where an English journalist named Andrew Dylan asked Saudi Arabia player Saleh Al-Shehri if it was true that every player on the team was being gifted a Rolls Royce Phantom car. In reply, Saleh Al-Shehri denied the claim and says “It’s not true”. He also says, “We’re here to serve our country and do the best. So that’s our biggest achievement”. (Archive)

Furthermore, according to a statement by team Saudi Arabia’s manager Herve Renard, the reports of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promising a Rolls-Royce Phantom to the players were untrue. “We have a very serious federation. We have a very serious ministry of sport. It is not time to get something at this moment. We only won a game. We still have to get very important games, and we are hoping some more. There is nothing true about this comment. We’ve only played one game at the moment,” he said.

Thus the report carried by several news media outlets that the Saudi Arabia team was being rewarded with Rolls Royce cars after winning against Argentina is untrue.

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