{"id":5366,"date":"2026-07-22T20:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/?p=5366"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:56:21","slug":"misleading-minors-image-protesting-to-watch-afcon-games-in-the-gambia-stadium-manipulated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/?p=5366","title":{"rendered":"Misleading Minor\u2019s image protesting to watch AFCON games in The Gambia stadium, manipulated
"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The image of the Gambia Independence Stadium. Photo Source: Foroyaa.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Claim<\/strong>: A viral photo<\/a> shows a young girl protesting to watch Gambia\u2019s AFCON qualifiers at the Independence Stadium.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verdict<\/strong>: Misleading! The minor\u2019s image was taken from a photojournalist\u2019s Facebook post and manipulated to push this narrative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamfoot Transfers, a popular Gambian football blogger, posted<\/a> a photo of a young girl holding a placard as she protests to watch the upcoming Gambia\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualification game in Gambia\u2019s national stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamfoot Transfer made the post (archived here<\/a>) on June 27, 2026 and wrote \u201cBless you, kid,\u201d as the caption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blogger first made the post on Instagram<\/a>, where it has generated 2,500 likes and 55 comments as of July 16, 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The claim also appeared on the blog’s Facebook page,<\/a> generating 1,100 likes, 43 comments, and 12 shares. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Facebook users shared this claim, as seen here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gambia\u2019s national stadium, also known as \u201cIndependence Stadium,\u201d has been under renovation<\/a> since January 2023. As of June 2026, news reports confirmed<\/a> that the renovation of the 40-year-old facility has not been fully completed or cleared for international matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This prolonged renovation has led to different controversies in recent times. An instance was when DUBAWA had to debunk a claim that Yankuba Minteh, Gambia\u2019s famous footballer, had called for a boycott <\/a>of\u00a0 Gambia\u2019s national team until the Independence Stadium is completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA conducted this verification due to the involvement of a minor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We conducted a reverse image search and traced the original version<\/a> of the photo to a Facebook post by a Gambian photojournalist named\u00a0 Pa Fatty Journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pa Fatty posted the photo on June 18, 2026, identifying the girl as Isatou Jallow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The original image on Pa Fatty\u2019s Facebook page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the journalist, Isatou was a participant in a Primary Schools Inter-Regional Football Championship that took place in Jarra Soma, Lower River Region (LRR), the Gambia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cDespite being the smallest player in the tournament, she impressed spectators with her brilliant skills, confidence and determination on the pitch,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having found the original image, we ran the photo through AIorNOT and RockIMG to check for manipulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Both AI content detection tools showed signs of manipulation. AIorNOT showed a 47 per cent probability that the image was AI-generated and a five per cent probability that it was a deepfake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


RockIMG, however, puts AI-probability at 35 per cent and manipulation risk at 87 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Analysis of the image. Source: RockIMG.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our findings show that the minor\u2019s photo was taken from a photojournalist\u2019s Facebook post and manipulated to push the narrative. The claim is therefore misleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Momodou Janneh <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report was produced under the 2026 Kwame Karikari Fact-checking and OSINT Fellowship, co-hosted by DUBAWA and the Digital Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Disorder Analysis Centre (DAIDAC), with support from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: A viral photo shows a young girl protesting to watch Gambia\u2019s AFCON qualifiers at the Independence Stadium.\u00a0 Verdict: Misleading! The minor\u2019s image was taken from a photojournalist\u2019s Facebook post and manipulated to push this narrative. Full Text Gamfoot Transfers, a popular Gambian football blogger, posted a photo of a young girl holding a placard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fact-checks"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5367,"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions\/5367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infochecked.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}