Superstitious K’Ogalo taking no chances with dreaded Tanzanian ‘juju’
Gor Mahia players and technical bench have reportedly refused to access certain areas of the National stadium in Dar es Salaam, a move that has invited speculation the club is keen to avoid getting “bewitched” by their opponents.
The Kenyan Premier League champions are competing in the Cecafa Club Championship in Tanzania – a country cases of “supernatural ways” of winning football matches are rife.
The decision by Frank Nuttall’s team to avoid some areas of the iconic 60,000 seater facility in the Tanzanian capital has set tongues wagging in Tanzania and Kenya.
This development was confirmed to the public through a protest letter written to the tournament organisers (read Cecafa) by the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF).
BROKE LOCKS
“In their first match played on 18th July, refused to use the designated doors, instead going to and exiting the changing rooms from the northern side of the pitch, which is the preserve of the broadcaster, SuperSport,” the TFF statement reads.
“In what surprised us, they used the same doors again in the game against Al Khartoum on Friday by breaking the lock to access the pitch, which is against the rules and regulations of the tournament,” the statement adds.
Sources have since confided to Nairobi News that the K’Ogalo contingent in Dar has been “tipped off” by a Kenyan working in Tanzania on some of the “unconventional ways” used by Tanzanian clubs to win football matches, and hence the need to seek ways to avoid “falling into that trap”.
It is alleged that Gor Mahia feared that one of its opponents was out to spray some “funny chemical” on the walls of the path leading to the pitch, in a bid to distract them during game time.