The reversal of a witchdoctor’s curse has been credited with the Australian national football team’s first qualification for the World Cup in 32 years.
Australian television presenter John Safran, who hosts an irreverent religious-affairs show called Safran v God, said he learned of the curse in the late Australian captain Johnny Warren’s autobiography.
According to Warren, the Socceroos in 1970 asked a Mozambique witchdoctor to place a hex on their opponents Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, ahead of a World Cup qualifier.
The Australians went on to win the match but they refused to pay the witchdoctor, who then cursed them to World Cup failure.
While the Socceroos went on to reach the 1974 finals, Safran said the team’s agonising failure at the last qualification hurdle in the three World Cups meant he wanted to take no chances ahead of the tie with Uruguay.
He found a witchdoctor in Maputo, Mozambique, and was able to settle the decades-old debt and lift the curse.
”I did it. I reversed the curse,” Safran told SBS television. ”I found a witch doctor who said he could channel the original dead witchdoctor who cursed the team, so we went to the pitch where Australia played and he smeared chicken blood all over me.”
The result: Australia won the tie against Uruguay 4-2 on penalties and will go to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. — Sapa-AFP