False: This image shows Japan's dressing room after their 2022 FIFA World Cup match against Costa Rica.

Context

The Japanese national football team and their supporters made headlines in the ongoing Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022. After their first victory against Germany on November 23, Japanese fans cleared litter from the stands, and the team cleaned up the dressing room before leaving the facility. Social media users appreciated it as photos and videos about it went viral. Japan faced defeat in the second match against Costa Rica on November 27. A collage of three images, showing garbage and litter scattered around a room, was shared on Facebook, claiming to be visuals of Japan's dressing room after their defeat. The post's caption read, "Japan's dressing room after Costa Rica match." However, this is incorrect.

In Fact

A reverse image search revealed that the visuals in the viral image are from a different, older incident. According to a Daily Mirror article dated March 26, 2022, the Italian football team left the mess after their 1-0 defeat against North Macedonia. This loss ended Italy's World Cup journey. After the team left the stadium in Palermo, images of their changing facility in such condition went viral. Images show plastic bottles, used tissues, and plastic bags scattered around the dressing room. 

Italy-based media organization Corriere Dello Sport published a video on its website on March 26. The footage showed the room, as seen in the image in question. The video translated into English is titled "Italy's dressing room after North Macedonia: a shame." 

According to Football Italia, Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci apologized on behalf of the team. He said, "It was a big mistake. Next time, we'll pay more attention. We were very disappointed, and we didn't think that these details make the difference sometimes. We'll pay more attention in the next matches. We apologize." 

The New York Times reported that Japanese fans were spotted picking up trash in blue bags and cleaning the stands after the team lost against Costa Rica on November 27. The Japanese team coach said, "For Japanese people, this is just a normal thing to do. When you leave a place, you have to leave it cleaner than it was before." On November 24, FIFA tweeted a photo of Japan's locker room after the team left the facility, which was spotless.

The Verdict

A collage image of Italy's littered dressing room after a March 2022 match has been incorrectly attributed to the Japanese team leaving its changing facility dirty during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.