This picture does not show the celebrations after the Italians won the Euro 2020 Football Cup

A video has been circulating on social media after the much anticipated football match between Italy and England where the former prevailed 3-2 on penalties at Wembley stadium in London on July 11, 2021.

In the video we can see a string of firecrackers going off as people standing nearby record the spectacle on their cell phones. 

The viral video doing rounds on social media claims that the video shows people in Italy celebrating their victory at the Euro Football Cup.

Fact Crescendo received this video for verification with the claim that this video shows people in Italy celebrating their victory at the Euro Football Cup on our WhatsApp Fact Line number– 9049053770. The video is being shared on WhatsApp with the caption, “Italy champions victory celebration.”

The caption of the post mentions “Patakha Pollution: Euro Football cup celebration at Italy. And these countries teach us not to celebrate Diwali because of pollution.”

Facebook Post | Archive Link 

Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by carefully observing the video and found that a man in the video is wearing a jacket with Chinese letters written on them. We also found Chinese letters on the vest coat of the man shooting the video of the firecracker with a camera. This indicated that the video might be from somewhere in China.

Next, we broke the video into small keyframes with the help of InVid We Verify tool and ran a reverse image on these keyframes which led us to a Facebook video which was posted on 18th April 2021. The Facebook post with the same video had a caption in Chinese which when translated reads, “Baishatun Mazu’s Tour What is burning money? This is the record of burning money!”

It is to be noted that Euro 2020 final was held on 11^th July this year. The viral video is present on internet before the finals.

We led a keyword search on Google to find similar reports on this tour and pilgrimage including the fireworks. We found photos of previous pilgrimages posted by Taiwan English News where we can spot pilgrims walk past strings of firecrackers on the road. Taiwan Today also carried similar reports. After every lunar new year the Mazu statue of Gongtian Temple at Baishatun, Tongxiao of Miaoli County, is placed in a palanquin and carried in procession to visit another Mazu Temple – Chaotian Temple located in the area of Beigang of Yunlin County, then returns to Gongtian Temple to end this pilgrimage. 

Moving forward we searched for celebration videos after the Italian Football team when they returned back to Italy. We found that team returned back in Rome, Italy on July 12, 2021, after winning the Euro Cup 2020 and were greeted by elated fans who gathered to welcome them.

Conclusion– Fact Crescendo found that the claim made along with the above-mentioned video is False. The viral video is from the Baishatun Mazu pilgrimage that is held annually between lunar January and April in Taiwan’s Miaoli County. The video dates back before the Euro 2020 finals and is from Taiwan.