There have always been several rumors running around as far soccer world is concerned, but this is probably the first time when a reputed source of daily soccer news believed on something imaginary. One of the most reputed and among oldest newspapers in England: Times recently reported that Qatar is planning to launch a new soccer league: Dream Football League, which would be played every two years during summer and offer some of the mouthwatering rewards to lure 24 teams from around the world to participate. It was reported that DFL would be in line with Champions League or Club world cup and offer more prizes than being rewarded there. This story spread throughout the world like a wild fire and everyone started counting how Qatar can change the world of football by its big money funds raisers. But when Times conducted its internal investigation about the story, it found it purely a rumor which was based on a French website cahiersdufootball.net. Even Qatar football association issued its denial upon any such developments by issuing a statement that reads as, “we have no involvement in any such initiative and had heard nothing to suggest such a concept is genuine”.
The first one to catch Times story was none other than the source itself where Les Cahiers du Football issued a tweet saying, “We published this on the night of Monday to Tuesday at around one in the morning – all of it came from my imagination.”
While the reporter who wrote that story denied taking his story from French side, perhaps he said he has his own sources where he picked the story from. Times football editor Tony Evans is in support of this reporter and said that “Oliver Kay developed a relationship with a contact who appeared to be connected with the Qatari ownership at Paris Saint-Germain. Over the months, this contact provided information that subsequently turned out to be right. Kay did not use any of this knowledge because he could not back it up with secondary sources. However, each time a tip-off turned into a fact, an element of trust grew.”
Anyways, it was Times who has to face the humiliation of copying someone else’s imaginary story rather using its own sources to confirm the facts before publishing. Even it ruled out any imaginary work behind this until its own investigation confirmed that there is no reality behind it. So, for now, all Champions League’s fans can relax coz there is no such league in the making!