Below is an article in the Sydney Sun Herald, Sunday November 20:
Socceroos owe it all to one man.... John Safran became our unlikely saviour
...The real reason for AUstralia's great footbal victory is some investigative journalism by comic and part-time football fan John Safran, with help from the late Johnny Warren and an African witchdoctor.... The story begins in 1969, when a team of amateur Australian footballers was trying to qualify for the 1970 World Cup. The team had lost a play-off and was to face Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Mozambique. Things were looking dire.
Safran said: "Johnny Warren told me that after the first game of the series, some of the players heard about a witchdoctor in Mozambique who said he could sort things out by putting a curse on the Rhodesians.
"They all said 'Yeah, cool, let's do it' and so the witchdoctor planted some bones near one of the goalposts and cursed the opposition." The team won the next game 3-1 and the witchdoctor told the players he wanted 1000 pounds for his services.
"'You owe me', the witchdoctor told them, but the players didn't have enough money,' Safran said. "He warned them he'd reverse the curse and put it on AUstralian soccer and he chased them around to get his money.
"The players left the country without paying up and Johnny sincerely believed that, ever since, Australian soccer has been cursed.
"The next game the team played, three players fell ill and from then on it's been one extraordinary circumstance after another."
The national team qualified for the 1974 World Cup but have since suffered a run of gut-wrenching defeats, topped off by the 1997 Iranian disaster and the tear-herker in Uruguay four years ago.
Personal note edit: For your information, Australia played Iran in a World Cup play-off match in 1997 which they led the final leg 2-0 with 20 minutes to go, before 2 late goals put Iran into the Cup on away goal rules
"(Warren writes) Every time some disaster befalls our national teams I think backto Mozambique. I can't help wondering if there's something extraordinary to blame.
"I think Soccer Auastralia should send someone to Mozambique with a thousand pounds to track down the witchdoctor and get him to left the curse. It could be worth a try, anyway."
When Warren told him the story last year, Safran decided to go to Africa to do a story about the curse for his TV show John Safran vs. God
The withcdoctor had died, but Safran found another who could channel him by going to the stadium at which the RHodesia game had been played 35 years earlier.
"That involved us sitting in the middle of the pitch and he killed a chicken and splattered the blood all over me," Safrand said. "I then had to go to Telstra Stadium with Johnny and we had to wash ourselves in some clay the witchdoctor had given us."
Safran watche the game at a friend's place. He said he had forgotten about the story until he began receiving emails from people thanking him for having lifted the curse.
Foster said footballers were a notiriously superstitious bunch. "Johnny did believe passionately in this curse," he said. "I'm certainly not discounting it and, if I meet John Safran, I'll definitley be thanking him for his effort."
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Sorry, no source link - it's from a newspaper
Yeah, so what do you think? Australian soccer has had some pretty bad luck over the past 30-odd years (none worse than the Iran game mentioned earlier). Did the curse of the witchdoctor have anything to do with it?
Just a thought.
Regards, PA
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