A group of soccer fans pranked a Spanish radio station, and eventually plenty of other media outlets, with a phony story of Patriots owner Robert Kraft investing in a Spanish soccer team.
It began with a Spanish radio station COPE reporting that a sale of a 40 percent share of Sevilla, a team in the first division of Spain's LaLiga, to a "U.S investment group" could come this week.
That initial report never mentioned Kraft. That's where a group of Sevilla fans came in. “We, a group of Sevilla fans who also like the NFL a lot have a friend who is a big fan of the Patriots, so three of us told him that the name that this reporter said in the radio was ‘the Kraft Group,'” a fan named Juan told Boston.com.
From there the phony story of Kraft's reported involvement was picked up by soccer websites, Forbes, and several other outlets - yes, including NBCSportsBoston.com.
Here's the full explanation of the hoax via Boston.com.
The Kraft group also own the New England Revolution of MLS and the Boston esports franchise in the Overwatch League. In 2005, Kraft did indeed consider purchasing English Premier League team Liverpool FC, which was purchased by Red Sox owner John Henry's group in 2010.
Perhaps fueling the hoax was the latest Forbes ranking of world sports franchises that showed the Patriots valued at $3.7 billion - the second-most valuable NFL franchise behind the Dallas Cowboys - and European soccer teams holding three of the top five spots.
