Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Liverpool Football club manager Jurgen Klopp spoke disrespectfully about Manchester United ahead of their FA Cup Quarter Final Clash.
Fact
No, viral video shows Klopp speaking after their win against Sparta Prague in Europa.
A video allegedly showing Liverpool Football Club Manager Jurgen Klopp speaking to the media ahead of the FA Cup tie against Manchester United is going viral on TikTok. The video goes on to claim that Klopp said “Manchester United is the worst club” he has ever seen.
Winger Amad Diallo came off the bench to score a last-minute winner for Manchester United to beat Liverpool 4-3 after extra time in a thrilling FA Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford on March 18.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @jordshopco posted a video showing Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp speaking to the media. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Klopp speaks to the media ahead of the FA Cup tie against Manchester United.” In the video Klopp is heard saying, “Who the F*** is ten Hag [Manchester United Manager Erik ten Hag]. Manchester United has to be one of the shittiest clubs I have ever watched play. I am not worried at all and we are going to win the league this season. And then I can get off from this shit club that has made me so tired these last few seasons. I think we will go for the treble this year. Go out with a bang just like John Terry’s wife. We got Nunez back, the big lanky streak of piss and shit haircut will probably take a few shots but misses always. Don’t get me started on shit haircuts. What the f*** Is Van Dyke doing? I thought he was my wife when he went into the dressing room with his horse knob out. I mean it was swinging left to right. Salah almost screamed for him to be banned because of the amount of pork in the room. But anyways Man United won’t be a test. We will probably get five six goals past them.” The video caption reads, “What are your thoughts on Klopp’s comments?”
The video posted on March 17 has garnered 3498 likes, 936 users have shared it and 128 people have commented until the last count. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker split the video into several key frames and conducted reverse searches on them. A reverse search on Google led us to a video, dated March 8, 2024 posted on a YouTube Channel named Simply Football.
On checking the video, we found that the video frame from the 0.45-minute timestamp onwards exactly matched the viral video. We found that the video actually showed a post-match press meet after Liverpool’s 5-1 win against Sparta Prague in the Europa League quarter finals. In the interview, Klopp says, “Results much better than the performance Sparta played a good game but it took some risk. Our protection was not good so they could counter-attack.We lost a few unnecessary balls. Actually, I told the boys at half-time how we should do it.” However, we didn’t find Klopp saying anything bad about Manchester United.
We also found an article, dated March 7, 2024, published on Guardian online, which confirmed that Liverpool defeated Sparta Prague 5-1 in the Europa League on March 7.
Further, we searched for the pre-match interview of Klopp before Liverpool’s FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester United slated for March 17 and found a video posted on the YouTube channel of Liverpool FC. On checking the video, we found Jurgen speaking about his team’s preparations for the clash against Manchester United. “I am looking forward to the challenge. I am sure that’s exactly what you call enjoyment.” The clothes worn by Klopp and the words were starkly different from the viral video.
Thus, our findings clearly showed that Klopp was not speaking rudely against Manchester United in his pre-match press meet ahead of his team’s clash with Man United. We found that an AI generated false voice-over was laid on top of the viral video.
Conclusion
No, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp didn’t speak rudely against Manchester United. An old video of Klopp speaking at a post-match press meet after Liverpool defeated Sparta is shared with a false voice-over laid on top.
Result: False
Sources
Simply Football /YouTube, March 8, 2024
Guardian, March 7, 2024
Liverpool FC /YouTube March 15, 2024
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
