Socceroos Witch Doctor Curse
In a story told in Johnny Warren's 2002 autobiography, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters: During a trip to play against Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1970 Mexico World Cup qualifiers in Mozambique, members of the Australian national soccer team (nicknamed the "Socceroos") including Warren consulted a witch doctor preceding their game. The witch doctor buried bones near the goal-posts and cursed the opposition, and Australia went on to beat Rhodesia 3–1 in the decider. However, the move backfired when the players could not come up with the £1000 demanded by the witch doctor as payment and he subsequently cursed the team. Subsequently, the Socceroos failed to beat Israel and did not qualify.
Whilst the curse is used as an explanation for failing to qualify for the World Cup for 32 years, including in the last match in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 qualifications, the curse is used in particular reference to the failure to qualify for the 1998 World Cup by drawing on aggregate against Iran, despite leading 2–0 in the second half of the final match of qualification.
The curse was supposedly lifted by John Safran during his 2004 TV series John Safran vs God. After reading the story in Warren's book, Safran travelled to Mozambique and hired a new witch doctor to channel the original to reverse the curse. The following year, the Socceroos not only qualified for the 2006 World Cup, but reached the second round before being beaten by Italy in Kaiserslautern.
It is worth noting that their appearance in the 1974 FIFA World Cup came after the supposed curse had been placed. However, they failed to score a goal in any of their three opening round matches, and were eliminated.
Read more about this topic: Sports-related Curses, S
Famous quotes containing the words witch, doctor and/or curse:
“I am no more a witch than you are a wizard. If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink.”
—Sarah Good (?–1692)
“It is said, proverbially, that happy is the doctor who is called in when the disease is on its way out.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“[A man’s] moral conscience is the curse he had to accept from the gods in order to gain from them the right to dream.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)