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Superstition is something I don’t align myself with. Heck, if anything, I could hardly be labelled as someone who believes in paranormal activities but then again, being in a South Asian country means that I always find myself surrounded by whispers of such matters.
As it turns out, however, these phenomena aren’t confined to only the third-world countries. In fact, even the beautiful game of football is riddled with supernatural hoodoos or curses.
And here are ten of the infamous ‘curses’ in football…
#10 Cursed by blood
Taking a penalty is a normal thing, isn’t it? The shooter places the ball on the spot and kicks it towards the goal. When Carlos Hermosillo took a penalty, however, it changed everything for the worse.
It was 1997 and Club Leon’s goalkeeper Angel Comizzo kicked Carlos Hermosillo in the face. As a result, a penalty was awarded while the latter started bleeding profusely.
As Hermosillo was about to take the penalty, the referee asked him to clean the blood off his face, but he didn’t pay heed and went on to score a late winner from the penalty.
This apparently put both the teams under a spell of a curse of the blood. Leon were then relegated in 2002 but came back to the first division and won the Apertura in 2013 and Clausura in 2014 – breaking their part of the curse.
Cruz Azul, meanwhile, are yet to win the championship since 1997.
#9 The Gentlemen of Cali
When the gentlemen of football Club America de Cali sat in a meeting in 1948 about moving the club in the professional league, one of the owners by the name of Benjamin Urrea was vehemently opposed to the idea.
He stormed out of the room after saying, “they can do whatever they want with the team, but I swear to God they will never be champions.” While the others laughed at his claim, it took America de Cali 31 years to win their first professional title as they won the league title in 1979.
In 1980, singer Antonio del Vivar and journalist Rafael Medina performed an exorcism on the pitch, after which the club won five consecutive national titles.
They are, however, yet to win the Copa Libertadores title despite being in four finals – three of which were in succession – which is why there are many who still believe that the curse is active.
#8 Should have paid the money!
So in a bid to win a World Cup qualifier game against Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Mozambique, the Australian football team hired a witch doctor, who buried bones near the goal-posts and cursed the opposition.
The Socceroos ultimately won against Rhodesia 3-1 but were in deep trouble when they couldn’t pay the £1000 demanded by the witch doctor.
He then cursed the team and the lost their next game against Israel and failed to qualify for the 1970 World Cup.
It took until 2006 for Australia to qualify for a World Cup and it happened after John Safran hired another witch doctor in Mozambique to reverse the curse.
Australia have since qualified for all the subsequent World Cups.
#7 Gypsy curse part I
Birmingham City apparently played for 100 years under the curse of Romani Gypsies. When the club moved its location from Muntz Street to St. Andrews and built a stadium on the land on which the Romanis used to stay.
After that, for the next 100 years, Birmingham City failed and failed and had to fight battles in which victories were never seen.
Ultimately on Boxing Day in 2006 – a 100 years from the curse – the curse was lifted as they won 2-1 against QPR.
Five years after that, they won the League Cup by beating Arsenal 2-1 at the Wembley.
#6 Gypsy curse part II
Almost like the one stated in the last slide, Derby County FC also suffered from a curse from a group of Romani Gypsies. When the club built their stadium, the Gypsies had to relocate to a new area.
The curse was that the club would never win the FA Cup – and they didn’t. From 1896 to 1903, the club reached six FA Cup semi-finals, including three finals, but couldn’t lift the title.
They had to wait till 1946 to reach the next final, before which a club representative went to the Gypsies in an attempt to lift the curse.
During the game, when the score was tied at 1-1, the ball burst and, apparently, the curse was lifted as Derby went on to win the tie 4-1.
#5 The restored Harp
Despite being one of the most successful Scottish clubs, Hibernian had to endure a 114-year-long wait to lift the Scottish Cup.
They played in 10 finals since 1902 and lost each of them before finally winning in 2016 against Rangers.
Apparently, a Gypsy (again) woman placed a curse on the club. During the renovation works in the 1950s, a harp crest – which symbolised the club’s founding Irish roots – was removed from the South Stand and wasn’t restored after the works were over.
During the 2015-16, the club’s badge, which includes the harp, was installed on the façade of the West Stand – and eight months later, Hibernian won the Scottish Cup.
#4 Just sprinkle some magic water
When Southampton migrated to St. Mary’s in 2001, they had a really tough time winning games. In fact, it took them four months to register their first win in the stadium – and it happened after a witch doctor sprinkled some holy water.
Cerridwen Dragonoak Connelly, the Pagan witch who lifted the curse, said: "I performed a ritual there and, because of my upbringings, I did it in Welsh. I performed a cleansing of the ground in Celtic tradition but athletes are a very superstitious bunch and I did a blessing for some positive energy and it has obviously worked."
After that, in the very next game, they beat Charlton in a comfortable fashion and warded off all the ill-feelings.
#3 Don't touch the Cup!
It is a dream of every footballer to touch the European Cup/Champions League trophy at least once in his career. Many players have done it, so where’s the problem?
While there is no problem in touching the cup after winning it, touching it before the final is apparently a curse. In 2004, Monaco’s Ludovic Giuly touched the trophy before the final.
Then Gennaro Gattuso did it before the final against Liverpool in Istanbul. Then in 2012, Bayern Munich’s Anatoly Tymoshchuk touched the trophy while entering the pitch.
And in all three cases, the respective players and their respective teams lost the respective finals.
#2 Dead cats
As Argentine club Racing celebrated the 1967 Intercontinental Cup win, the fans of their greatest rivals, Independiente, broke into Racing’s El Cilindro stadium and buried the corpses of seven black cats.
And that’s when the curse – and Racing’s drought – began. When the barren run got too long, the club staged an exorcism and dug up the ground to remove the corpses. They, however, only found six cats and the curse was still on.
In 2001, they finally found the remains of the seventh cat during the renovation of the ground. And right at the end of that season, Racing won the league for the first time in 34 years.
#1 The irreversible curse of Bela Guttman
And now for the best of the lot. After winning the European Cup for five straight years, Real Madrid saw their domination ended by Bela Guttman’s Benfica.
He won the title twice in a row with the Portuguese outfit and subsequently asked for a pay rise.
One would have thought the board would be more than happy to give the man what he wanted, but they refused and also terminated his contract.
An infuriated Guttman then cursed the club saying: "Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champion."
Since then, they have played in eight European finals – five in the European Cup and three times in the UEFA Cup/Europa League – and lost all of them.
Before the 1990 European Cup final in Vienna – the city where Guttman rests in peace – Eusebio prayed to his grave to forgive the club and lift the curse, but it wasn’t to be as the Portuguese outfit lost 1-0 to Milan.
