Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘coronavirus hotels’ another of football’s fake feel-good stories
- Portugal star was widely reported to be turning his hotels into coronavirus hospitals but it was not true
- Fake quotes on past players are harmless but rumours risk turning on subject when exposed
The “news” went viral on Sunday, a feel-good story for these feel bad times. Cristiano Ronaldo would turn his chain of hotels in Portugal into hospitals for people affected by Covid-19. Not only that, he would pay the salaries of all the doctors and nurses.
Hundreds of websites repeated this story including established news outlets like Marca’s website (but not the actual paper) in Spain and TalkSport’s website in England. Last Thursday, Marca’s website also wrote that all the Europa League gamed would be cancelled with immediate effect … which was news to the clubs about to play games behind closed doors. And they did play those games.
For the Ronaldo story, the clicks and likes ticked over into their tens of thousands, with so many comments agreeing what a great guy Ronaldo was. They wrote “classy gesture” complete with an emoji of a handclap. There was even credit from people who positively identify as Lionel Messi fans above supporters of any football club. If you want to find a weird subsection of the web, then it’s Messi and Ronaldo fans arguing with each other over who is the best and objecting to any journalist who plumps for the other.
The story came from a TV journalist Adriano Del Monte, who has a verified blue Twitter tick. His tweet was: “Cristiano Ronaldo’s @PestanaCR7 hotels will become hospitals next week, where patients in Portugal will be treated free of charge. He will pay all medical staff. #COVID19 What a man.”
There was only one problem: the story was a hoax.