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Claim: A Facebook page shared a video suggesting Haaland issued an open apology to Arteta.

Verdict: Misleading! Reports reveal that the video interview was after the Manchester City Vs Aston Villa Match on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, where Haaland spoke of how he lost chances of winning during the match with Aston Villa.
Full Text
Following Manchester City’s encounter with English league rival Arsenal in September 2024, where both sides shared equal points, Manchester City’s forward, Erling Haaland, approached the visitors’ head coach, Mikel Arteta, and mocked him, telling him to “stay humble.”
In reaction to the widespread rift between the two individuals, a Facebook page, Arsenal Fantastic News, on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, shared a video alleged to be Haaland’s open apology to Arteta after the incident in September.
“I’m sorry, please, I’m really sorry. I will stay humble from now on. I apologise to Mikel Arteta. Ever since I told him to stay humble, we’ve been cursed. Please accept my apology, or else this curse won’t be lifted. I will get bullied on Instagram again tonight.” The Manchester City forward was allegedly heard saying.
“Seriously, I wanna cry Arteta, please bro come out and say I accept your apology, or else the curse will go on. I don’t know if we are ever going to win another match again. I promise I will stay humble, please, man,” Haaland allegedly buttressed.
As of Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, the post had attracted over 12,000 likes, 1,200 comments, and 1,700 reposts.
DUBAWA also found similar posts on Facebook (here, here, here, and here), Instagram (here, here, here, and here), and YouTube.
Because the Manchester City forward’s alleged utterances have gone viral across social media platforms and because of the strained relationship between the two football rivals, DUBAWA decided to verify the post’s authenticity.
Verification
DUBAWA conducted a Google Reverse Image Search on some video screen grabs. Related results show that the search is related to a post-match interview following Manchester City’s defeat to Aston Villa on Dec. 21, 2024.
Investigating further, DUBAWA came across a similar video on Sports Tab via YouTube but with different audio details contrary to the claimant’s post. In the video, Haaland evaluates how he was underperforming during his side’s poor run late last year.
“I haven’t been good enough and haven’t delivered for City this season. I need to step up and work harder. I just need to get better. It just isn’t good enough,” Haaland partly said.
He also spoke about Manchester City’s head coach, Pep Guardiola, who has been tenacious in winning the Premier League title six times and has the potential to do it again despite his side’s poor form.
“He (Guardiola) won the Premier League six times in seven years, so we will never forget that. He will find the solutions. He has been doing that every single year. We still believe in him.”
DUBAWA further subjected the clip to deepware verification, which revealed traces of deepfake material in the video. It evaluated the video post as having 60 per cent deepfake content.
DUBAWA also carried out a keyword search on Haaland’s postmatch interview after Manchester City’s encounter with Aston Villa. This led us to several international and local reports but with different details contrasting the claimants.
Sky Sports reported that the Manchester City forward admitted his poor performance for his side against Aston Villa.
Daily Mail, Premier League, The Mirror, and Daily Post reported similar stories on Dec. 21, 2024.
We further checked if Haaland publicly apologised to Arsenal’s head coach or if any credible news outlet reported it, but there was no news.
Conclusion
DUBAWA’s research revealed that Haaland did not openly apologise to Arteta, as the claimant portrayed. The video was digitally altered.