Why we REALLY made the World Cup Finals
Thursday, 17 November 2005
Presenter: Russell Woolf
Be nice to this man.
Not many people know the real story behind the Socceroos' making the World Cup. John Saffran from SBS is only to happy to claim all the glory for himself. It involved the small matter of reversing a curse.
In his auto-biography, the late Australian soccer legend Johnny Warren reveals that a Mozambique witch doctor placed a curse on the Australian team during the 1969 world cup qualifying rounds.
Australia's players actually visited a witch doctor to have a curse placed on their Rhodesian opponents. The witch doctor wasn't paid, so he reversed the curse.
And Johhny Warren reckoned it was this old curse which has kept us from the World Cup. "He was like sincerely into it," says John Saffran. Warren had confided that he'd even consulted witch doctors in Brazil about a reversal.
Our guest looked into all this on his TV show "John Saffran vs God". And he did it seriously. It turns out that the original witch doctor had died, but that the curse can continue unless actively reversed by another witch doctor. Saffran went to Mozambique, found a witch doctor, and gave him money to atone fot Australia's previous failure to pay.
They sacrificed a chicken..
John Saffran then went to the stadium where the cup tie was played. "I had to sit in the middle of the stadium for about three hours whilst this ceremony went on and they sacrificed a chicken and rubbed chicken blood all over me," he recalls.
The second part of the curse reversal involved a return to Australia, the Telstra Dome, and Johnny Warren. "We had to rub this kind of medicinal clay all over our bodies," says Saffran.
John Saffran sees this as one of the most significent moments in Australian sport. The curse was reversed and Australian soccer lives happily ever after.
We suggest to Mr Saffran that he's saved Australian Football. "I know, I know," he responds, "Who's this Harry Kewell guy, this Guus guy..."
And Australian of the Year? "I think I should," says our guest. "I don't think that's enough. I think Nobel Prize. What else is going around ? ...Something, I agree."
You never know, by the time The 2006 World Cup comes around, John Saffran may be feeling confident enough to try a little witchcraft on those other teams.
John Saffran
http://www.abc.net.au/perth/stories/s1510549.htm