sport news World Cup 2022: Qatar accused of paying hundreds of 'fake fans' for Tiktok video trends now
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.
The Tiktok channel Qatari Living, which has over 400,000 followers, has been sharing videos of the 'fans' from different countries waving flags and chanting songs as they walk along the Corniche in Doha.
The suggestion is that supporters had arrived early in the country to soak up the build-up to the World Cup, with the clips posted mostly over the weekend.
But fans reacted with scepticism and some accused the Qatari authorities of paying migrant workers to dress up in support of different nations.
Several comments on the England 'fans' Tiktok video featured the word 'England' along with the flag emojis of India and Bangladesh, countries where thousands of workers were recruited from to build World Cup stadia and infrastructure.
'Must be England fans from Kerala, India,' said one comment, while others pointed out the musical instruments in the videos were definitely not English. Another TikTok user wrote: 'Paid actors!'
One other comment said: 'I swear they're paying the workers to be fans at this point. I've seen them supporting like seven different countries.'
Videos emerged of England 'fans' singing and dancing in Doha have emerged on a Qatari Tiktok channel - but they have been met with scepticism
Other Tiktok videos apparently showed fans of Brazil (left) and Argentina (right) already in Qatar over a week before their teams' first matches
Another Tiktok user said: 'Saw them all dressed as Brazil fans yesterday.'
In the England video, the 'fans' were wearing England shirts and baseball caps, waving the St George's flag and holding up a banner that said: 'It's coming
