World Cup Spirits Collide

June 3rd, 2006 | by: WC Bob |

While the players will be battling it out on the pitch during the World Cup, there is also a battle to see which spirits are the most powerful. A Togo voodoo priest believes that the spirits are wearing the yellow and green of the Sparrowhawks. Togbui Assiogbo Gnagblondjro III, who hopefully has a shorter, easier to remember nickname, says that Togo will go far in the tournament because the ancestral spirits of Togo say so.

I’m not sure when the ancestral spirits of Togo last watched a football match, but if it was any time in the last century they would realize that Togo probably isn’t destined to stay very long in Germany. Then again, half of Togo’s 5 million inhabitants practice one form or another of voodoo and I’d hate to get on their bad side. Togo will win.

Not to be outdone is a member of the Iranian Football Federation who voiced his opinion last month that Group D opponent Mexico isn’t above using a little witchcraft to gain a World Cup advantage. Never fear, he said, “We have taken adequate measures to counter this type of trickery, and we believe that true believers will never succumb to this type of magic. The Iranian team has a very profound faith, which will protect them like an impenetrable fortress.”

Witch doctors have also played a role in Ivory Coast football for years.

Witch doctors scatter charms on the field or smear the goalposts with magic ointments to keep the ball out. In 1984 no fewer than 150 fétisheurs stayed with the Ivorian national team at their hotel before a crunch game in the African Nations Cup: Each player took a bath in water treated with various potions, before being invited to make a wish in the ear of a pigeon. Another soccer club was taken to court in 1998 when, following a decisive league match in Bouake, its players admitted to drinking a concoction prepared by a juju man (the case was dismissed).

Don’t knock making a wish in the ear of a pigeon until you try it. If that is what it takes for my beloved Angola to win a game at the World Cup I’ll chat up a pigeon or two for hours.

All of this talk of spirits and witchcraft might be a moot point, however, since a Shaman from Ecuador has claimed that he has chased the evil spirits away.

Let’s hope he let a few stay behind. It will be more fun that way.

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zé

Witch doctors also have been part of football history in Brazil, although the thing’s not that open (it’s a bit more folkloric). We don’t heard many stories about that nowadays, but it was pretty common a few decades ago.

I know something will be lost in translation, but I’d like to mention this which will probably be recognizable to Brazilians but it’s nearly impossible to translate to english (because it needs a lengthy explanation)…:

“Se macumba ganhasse campeonato, o campeonato baiano terminaria empatado”.
John

Someone needs to write a book about this. I love reading about rituals and football.
Naomi

Beside Togo and Brazil, are there any other countries use this practice to boost the players’ performance?