Yahoo News No, Pep Guardiola didn’t refuse to shake hands with an Israeli representative
A video said to show Pep Guardiola, the manager of the Premier League football club Manchester City, refusing to greet an Israeli man has garnered several million views on social media since it was first shared on May 27. However, it turns out that the sequence was actually filmed on August 6, 2023 and the person that Guardiola was ignoring was Alan Smith, a British man who once managed the FA Crystal Palace football club.
If you only have a minute:
Social media users have been circulating a video since May 27 that they say shows Pep Guardiola, the manager of the British Premier League football club Manchester City, refusing to shake hands with an Israeli representative at Wembley stadium in London. The video has garnered millions of views on X.
It turns out that this video was filmed on August 6, 2023 during the 19th Community Shield, an annual match held between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. The man that Guardiola snubbed is the former coach of Crystal Palace FC and is British, not Israeli.
The fact check, in detail
It isn’t clear why Guardiola refused to greet Smith. Even Smith had no idea.
“Mmmmmm not sure,” Smith wrote on X on August 7. "Think he thought I was Arsenal???"
Arsenal won the match against Manchester City that day on a penalty shoot out: going from a 1-1 draw to 4-1.
