Let's face it, this World Cup is a shambles.
From the abhorrent atrocities that took place to 'prepare' the Gulf state, the tournament so far hasn't faired to be much better. Fans are struggling to get into the grounds in time for kick off, it's expensive and the accommodation on offer is giving Fyre Festival a run for its money.
But those at home and in Qatar have noticed that the organisers are doing anything to try and make this World Cup look good. One of those ways is inflating the attendances.
According to the stadium announcers, Argentina's game against Saudi Arabia had an attendance of 88,012. Pretty good on the face of it, isn't it?
That's all lies. In fact, it's actually impossible.
The Lusail Stadium can only hold 80,000 in total, meaning that it somehow magically installed an extra 8,012 seats just for this game.
https://twitter.com/JacobsBen/status/1595021656518426624
Furthermore, eagle-eyed viewers will have clearly noticed that the stadium wasn't even full and to make matters worse, it's not the first time they've done that either.
On Monday's game between The Netherlands and Senegal they stated that the attendance was 41,000. The ground holds 40,000 and again, it was quite clear to see a number of empty seats dotted around the stadium.
https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1594747031330906112
Fans are picking up on this rather bizarre trait. One person wrote: "Why do they keep lying about attendance numbers?"
Another tweeted: "I think Vince McMahon is doing the attendances at the World Cup, 88,000 in a stadium that holds 80,000."
https://twitter.com/AddedFootball/status/1595022055430307841
A third said: "Why do they keep recording the official attendance of all matches in the World Cup as 1000s more than the actual capacity. Think its happened in every match so far. Are the official capacity just all wrong?"
https://twitter.com/AndrewYee2/status/1595021388892753920
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