Football just like religion, has an amazing drive and pull to its participants and spectators and has made pundits dub it as the most loved sport in the world or simply ‘the beautiful game’.
This leaves the question posed by scholars and atheists whether the religion of football and its worshipers is just a superstitious thought or an actual pull of spiritualism deeply rooted from traditions.
The Stake holders, level of its competitiveness and of late the wealthy tycoons coming in as investors, the mighty gamblers and drug lords involved in the underworld of corruption, prostitution, child trafficking and match fixing have made the game become a den of thieves where no beast wants to lose on the ultimate prize. A fresh cut steak from the thighs of an impala, perhaps.
For this reason, the global sport will see these stakeholders go to extreme measures to achieve the intended results, hence making the sport a religion and football a god worshiped by many.
Football as a career has enabled many third world players to earn a living, but behind the curtains of glory lays a scary reality.
In Africa, witchcraft is commonly practiced alongside modern religion not to mention the high levels of corruption involved.
It is therefore no surprise to see this ancient and very dangerous practice crawl its way into modern sport, especially football because of its massive followers.
The Dark Continent and its inhabitants have been associated with superstitions since time immemorial, way before even the British invented football and this has confirmed a place in history of society as indeed ‘dark’, hence making the beautiful game a very, very ugly sport indeed.
Thousands of football lovers and other stake holders have hurt or lost their lives if not their careers due to their involvement in witchcraft among other superstitious activities or at least as alleged. Most football managers on the other hand deny this and have joined the church goers who perceive to be holier than thou because they do not believe in such, or rather say they are simply ignorant of the fact.
A German-based documentary filmmaker Oliver Becker, astonishingly witnessed a Tanzanian player anointing the grave of a dead teammate with chicken’s blood so as to possess the dribbling skills of the dead man for himself, while In another incident in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a frightening blast of lightning stroke dead an entire team on the playing field while their opponents were left completely unscathed.
“This service is something that is not to be given away for free,” Becker said. “Some teams spend so much money on juju that they may be unable to afford traveling to away games,” A fact that explains the poor state of football management in Africa, but this is not all, black magic is also used to harm the opposing teams and render them useless during clashes.
Kwaku Bonsam for instance, a famous Ghanaian witch doctor recently in an interview with Kumasi-based Angel FM, claimed responsibility on Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury prior to the great games scheduled to be played in Brazil in a week’s time.
The witch adds that he did so in the spiritual world so as to hurt the real Madrid star as he poses a big threat in the case where he might face his own, the black stars of Ghana.
“I am very serious about it,” the famous witch quipped. “This injury can never be cured by any doctor; they can never see what is causing the injury because it is spiritual. Today, it is his knee, tomorrow it is his thigh, next day it is something else.”
Just like Brazilians have dominated football with their amazing skills and prowess, West Africans have not been left behind in superstitions; they are perfectionists in writing the spiritual scripts behind the screens of witchcraft.
Serbian coach Goran Stevanovic who coached the black stars of Ghana in the African cup of nations 2012 complained to the Ghanaian Football Association that his team lost to Zambia in the semis because players used black magic against themselves.
“It has always happened, but players have used it to protect themselves and normally in search of luck,” Sarfo Gyami, who was a member of the Ghana side at the 1992 Nations Cup, also confirmed the use of black magic to BBC Sport in Accra.
Such incidences and many others however ignite serious debates among scholars and atheists on whether these superstitions and spiritual powers do work, or it’s just an act to scare off and intimidate your opponent so as to gain ground and advantage to victory in a battle ground.
In some incidences, black magic has failed miserably, while some people have attributed their success to powers from witch doctors.
Cases where Africans have continued to make the beautiful game ugly are numerous. Cameroonian Mohammed from Bamenda, says he inherited the gift from his late father-a traditional healer and adds that many players and team managers consult him for powers to progress in the sport.
The man from Bamenda claims that he can cast spells on a ball or smear a team’s goalposts with magic potions to keep the ball out.
“European players take drugs to improve their performance. We Africans do not have access to drugs.
We’ve got a third eye and traditional concoctions that scientific tests cannot detect,” he boasted to Cameroonian journalists during an interview with www.goafrica.about.com.
Mohammed explains that the dismal performance and infighting of the indomitable lions in South Africa was not a case of black magic failure, but as “too many cooks spoil the broth”.
In other words, he believes that there were too many marabouts or witchdoctors working for the indomitable Lions hence confusing the spirits. This according to scholars who do not believe in superstitions is an act of failure and indeed the spirit world does not exist.
Michel Zoah, then Cameroon’s minister of sport and physical education, faced questions from members of parliament about the dismal performance of the national side during the World Cup in South Africa 2010 where the star studded team embarrassingly lost all their games at the tournament and it was no secret that they lacked cohesion and focus due to many problems and internal wrangling.
According to the minister’s report to parliament, he highlighted witchcraft, mysticism, jealousy and disorder as the main issues that affected the Lions’ performance. For pundits and analysts who observed the team at the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola and South Africa in 2010, the minister simply confirmed what they already suspected.
In our beloved Kenya, the sons of the red soil have made the beautiful game even uglier as they compete for the first prize awards with West Africans in the league of witchcraft and superstitions.
Former AFC Leopards coach Luc Eymael attributed witchcraft as one of the impediments to his team’s poor form despite also rumors of alleged sabotage from senior players during his time at the Luhya’s den that saw him being fired.
If you thought the now common word ‘miscellaneous ‘ or ‘research’ in a club’s accounting books is a reference to a budget entry then you are in for a rude shock.
This is an amount set aside for supernatural assistance observes Kenyan journalist George Omondi in his findings in regards to witchcraft associations in the game of football in Africa.
Simba SC and Tanzanian first choice shot stopper who played as a second option during his tenure at Gor Mahia always carried a white towel with him to the posts, and the man from bongo was great in saving penalties.
Kenyan superstition however left many to claim that the Taifa stars custodian used black magic to save his penalties that won Kogalo the president’s cup in 2013.
It shall also be remembered that the club (Gor Mahia) which Ivo Mapunda represented was named after a famous ancient witchdoctor in Luo land.
The Luo community from the lake region, though known for its ridiculous pride, is also a well known dangerous hub of superstitions and witchcraft. This is the root of the legendary Kenyan club Gor Mahia, though the club is based in Nairobi. The club has constantly been linked with witchcraft and many other superstitious activities and beliefs during their league matches.
It has also been claimed that homage is sometimes paid to the great witch by taking players to camp by his grave side and perform rituals before the start of the season.
“Some officials hire dead bodies from the mortuary, take them to the stadium to ‘cleanse’ the pitch on the night before a match so as to ‘dilute’ the opposition’s ‘team doctor’s powers.” confirms Omondi in his article.
Joining in this discussion was also former Harambee Stars and top Kenyan league, retired defender now living an average life in Nairobi’s Eastland despite his former glory and financial wealth.
“It’s a dangerous business where individuals sacrifice their first-borns, wives or parents in order to play professionally of compete for first team places in the national team.” the anonymous player contributed and added that Kenyan football was a dirty sport.
The beautiful game has indeed become uglier especially in Africa. Though many stake holders refute these claims of witchcraft and other superstitious activities, in Kenya among other African nations, the salt of superstition has been rubbed into innocent wounds in addition to corruption leaving many to become hopeless in their lives after football.
In this great debate that has seen atheists and scholars try to bring logic and make sense of this debacle.
The true sons and daughters of African football continue to live to their reputation, deep into traditions as they hide behind the beautiful gowns and vails in churches with constant prayers before their matches.
This is where football has become a religion worshiped by its followers. The Faithfull’s flock into stadiums and call themselves divas, in true sense they are vagabonds and hooligans who tarnish their team’s reputations after a lost match, the drunkards who argue senselessly and create havoc in the bars, and of course not forgetting the big pockets of gamblers who can fix matches at the expense of the corrupt big boss, the man in charge of the organization who despite being in charge, has no clue how to run the organization.
Author: Shadrack Andenga Odinga