Gor Mahia will face Tanzanian side in a CAF CC group ‘D’ match on Sunday at the national stadium in Dar on Sunday evening. But allow me me to take you to what happened when the two teams met in Nairobi last week.
Of course, we all know that the match ended 4-0 in favour of the hosts, but I will like to highlight one of the issues that you might not be privy to.
The match was married with many off field plots. Yanga, dramatically rejected a bus reserved for them when they arrived at JKIA and instead boarded a City Hoppa commuter bus to Roasters Hotel along Thika Road.
Gor Mahia secretary general Ben Omondi has also revealed that their opponents opted to stay at Roasters after rejecting a number of hotels that their hosts had earmarked for them.
Omondi added that the Tanzanian side did not give reason for their actions but said Yanga suspected Gor Mahia may have used charms to derail their match ‘’This is common with most African teams, but I want to assure Yanga that Gor Mahia has never and will never use black magic,’’ Omondi said.
But this is not the first time that superstitions have been reported in Tanzanian football. The same Yanga declined to use a bus and hotel reserved for them by APR of Rwanda ahead of a Caf- Champions League match in 2016.
And so we ask the question! Could witchcraft, superstitions and sorcery be derailing Tanzanian football? The Country, which enjoys some of the most passionate football fans in the region has never qualified for the African Cup of Nations since 1980.
This is a painful pill to swallow for a country with more than 60 million people and historic clubs like Simba, Yanga and most recently Azam.
In the just ended Cecafa Kagame Cup held in Tanzania, Gor Mahia also rejected a dressing room assigned to them ahead of a semi-final clash with Azam, preferring to use the National Stadium corridors as changing rooms.
Kogalo team manager Jolawi Obondo said that something not human had been applied in the dressing room and the players could not stand it, with the team doctor saying it was not a healthy environment for the players and team officials.
“Whatever was smelling there was not normal. It was not human. It was not a case of juju but the stench coming from there. It happened in 2015 again and even before the final, Simba experienced the same thing and twice refused to use the dressing room. I called the CECAFA management and told them that whatever smell was there, it was unbearable, and they also concurred and agreed that something had been done in the dressing room. They are the ones who suggested and showed us a place to use just close to the gate, they even brought chairs for us,” was this another case of Juju? We can’t tell but Gor lost the match 0-2 to.
In the past few years, Kenyan players have not enjoyed a lot of success in the Tanzanian Premier League. In fact the last player to light the league was Boniface Ambani who played for Yanga in 2010. The others have complained of black magic being used against them.
Gor Mahia forward George ‘Blackberry’ Odhiambo was in scintillating form when he joined Azam in a lucrative deal in 2012. The young forward had just been voted 2010 KPL Player of the Year and a lot was expected from him. But he terminated his contract even before one year ended, accusing the club of witch craft.
“I signed a one year deal with Azam but the blatant use of African magic was too much for me to handle. I could train well but on the match day, at times I could experience strange physical complications like body pains and swollen feet,” Odhiambo said during an interview with The Standard in 2014.
Former Kenyan international Willis Ochieng walked out of his three-year contract at Simba in what he says was unfavourable playing conditions.
Willis revealed an incident that shocked him to bits when he was with the Tanzanian champions in 2011.“Tuliingia dressing room tukapata ni moshi kila pahali. Moshi ilipo pungua kukatokea watu wawili wamekalia jezi za game. I was shocked! (When we got to the dressing room, there was thick smoke and when the smoke reduced, we saw two people seated on our playing kits)
Pascal Ochieng, Humphrey Mieno and Jockins Atudo also terminated lucrative contracts with Tanzanian teams to return home