A post going viral on social media (here, here, and here) claims that Pride flags have been permanently banned at the FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) Club World Cup 2025. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: Pride flags have been permanently banned at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.
Fact: The news of Pride flags being permanently banned at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 is not true. It was posted as a satirical article on SpaceXMania on 15 November 2024, with a note at the bottom stating: “This is SATIRE,” which means it’s not true. Additionally, FIFA’s media team clarified that the claim is false, stating, “This report has no validity.” Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the viral claim, we conducted an internet search using relevant keywords. However, we found no credible reports confirming that Pride flags have been permanently banned at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. Such a significant decision would have attracted considerable media attention, but no such reports were found.
We reviewed FIFA’s official information about the upcoming 2025 FIFA Club World Cup released on 02 December 2024, which included details about the new tournament, such as qualified teams, groups, fixtures, competition format, hosts, tickets, and more. However, there was no mention of a ban on Pride flags.
We also reviewed FIFA’s official social media handles (here, here, here, and here), their website, and FIFA’s press releases but did not find any such announcement.
We then contacted FIFA’s media team via email, and they clarified that the reports of a ban on Pride flags are false. They confirmed, “There is no validity to this report. The source is a satirical site that clearly states at the bottom of the story that it is not true.”
We then conducted a Google keyword search, which led us to an article on the site SpaceXMania posted on 15 November 2024 about the supposed ban. However, at the bottom of the page, a note stated: “This is SATIRE,” which means it’s not true, the site had also categorised the piece as “satire.”
We noticed that the website’s “About Us” page describes its content as “the freshest fake news, some sassy analysis, and a good dose of satire.”
However, we found reports that Pride flags and rainbow attire became a contentious issue during the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Several federations sought to wear rainbow “One Love” armbands in protest against the country’s policies toward LGBTQ individuals but abandoned the plan under pressure from FIFA.
To sum up, the news of a ban on Pride flags at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 is Fake
