An article suggesting that a certain Moldovan footballer is the next Pele, has been floating around the internet. It has since emerged that the person does not exist and the article was deliberately placed with PA to highlight flat earth news. The BBC website recently posted the following response, which appeared in the Guardian. "Several media outlets were left red-faced after tipping Moldovan international Masal Bugduv as football's next big thing only for it to emerge that the player does not exist - a web of blog postings had created the player out of nothing." (Guardian) However innocent the story is it still highlights the ease with which any story can be manufactured.

 Gareth

 Nick Davies add:

 For more on this (which may remind readers of Flat Earth News of the wonderful tale of the England football fan, Mr Paul Hucker), see

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/15/masal-bugduv-moldova-hoax-player

and, on this story's cunning hidden messages, try

http://www.runofplay.com/2009/01/15/the-literary-origins-of-the-masal-bu...