Claim: Ghanaians have built a football pitch on water at Nzulezu, Facebook user claims
Verdict: False, floating football pitch is not in Ghana but is located in a village at Koh Panyi or Koh Panyee Island in Ao Phang Nga Bay National Park in Thailand.
Full-text:
A Facebook post by a verified account, Yaa Asantewa Asante, on September 14, 2021, claims that a football pitch floating on water is located at Nzulezu, in Ghana.
The post, which attempts to portray Ghana as an attractive tourists destination by encouraging people to visit Ghana as well as do their “next shoot,” was accompanied by the hashtag “#shootInGhana is an initiative under the National Film Authority’s and #mappingGhana drive.”
This claim, at the time Dubawa was publishing this report, had attracted over 480 likes and 296 reshares and has generated some controversy with many of the commenters, including Saddick Adams, a popular sports analyst, among the people disputing the claim, in the comment section.
Verification:
Nzulezu, a popular tourist location, is a 400-year old stilt propped water settlement of Nzulezu, built on Lake Tadane in the Western Region, according to the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board.
But the landscape of the village does not correspond with this picture under review which depicts a mountainous location.
Using Google reverse image search, we discovered that the image of the soccer field floating on water is located in a village at Koh Panyi or Koh Panyee Island in Ao Phang Nga Bay National Park in Thailand.
The image has been captured by several image-based and tourism websites, including 123RF which is one of the providers of images, illustrations, videos and audio files online.
In a telephone interview with the National Film Authority, which was tagged in the post, the agency explained that they have been embarking on an exercise to map tourist locations across the country, for the movie industry.
It is in relation to this exercise that the images were posted by the verified handle. However, they clarified that the image of the floating football picture was mistakenly included by the poster while noting that the tourist location is not in Ghana.
Conclusion:
Based on the above data, it can be concluded that this claim is inaccurate.
