The Club World Cup that wasn’t: how fake highlights took over the internet - Using clever tactics and Messi clickbait, Egyptian creators racked up 14m views with highlights posted before kickoff. YouTube didn’t catch on until it was too late
▻https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jul/01/fake-club-world-cup-highlights-youtube-scam
It was Thursday morning in America and something didn’t look right in the highlights of the Club World Cup match between Manchester City and Juventus.
The video in front of me was the top result on both YouTube and Google Search’s video tab for the game in Orlando. More than 700,000 people had already watched the best moments of the riveting 3-2 matchup. And yet, footage showed City head coach Pep Guardiola all bundled up in a puffer jacket ill-suited to humid Florida summers.
On a couple of occasions, the commentators on the video referred to the Juventus goalkeeper as Martin Dúbravka. He actually plays for Newcastle, a totally unrelated team that wears a black-and-white jersey similar to that worn by the Italian side.
Oh, also? The match wasn’t on until several hours later.