World Cup Betting: Australian football on the up now that the curse has been lifted

World Cup / Jonathan Wilson / 05 February 2009 / Leave a comment

Jonathan Wilson looks ahead to Australia's vital World Cup qualifier against Japan and reveals how a 35 year-old curse struck by a witch doctor may have been the reason for the Socceroos' failures in the past.

The Asian World Cup qualifiers resume next week, with two huge clashes as the top four ranked nations in the confederation face each other.

Iran will replace South Korea at the top of qualifying Group Two if they can beat them in Tehran, while in Yokohama, Australia [120.0 to win

the 2010 World Cup] know that a first victory on Japanese soil would see them a mighty eight points clear of the play-off spot at the halfway stage, and all but sure of their place in South Africa.

That would be a second successive qualification for Australia - an impressive achievement given they had only previously qualified for the 1974 World Cup - and a vindication of their decision to switch from the Oceanian Football Confederation to Asia in 2006.

The reasons for their rise are various: the introduction of a professional tournament, the A-League, for all its problems, has improved competition (Melbourne Victory are 2.12 favourites to win the grand final); an influx of immigrants from southern Europe - Italians,
Serbians, Croatians, Greeks - has generated an audience more receptive to football than either of the rugby codes or Aussie Rules; and the success of players like Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill and Mark Viduka in Europe has stimulated interest.

But the real reason may be rather less obvious. Johnny Warner, probably Australia's greatest ever player and the first footballer to be granted a state funeral, was convinced that his country was being held back by a curse put on them by a nyunga - a witch-doctor - in
Mozambique. It sounds bizarre, but Warren made clear in his autobiography that he was convinced supernatural forces were behind Australia's repeated failures.

The story begins in 1969, when Warren led Australia to Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) for a World Cup qualifier against Rhodesia. Twice they drew, and ahead of a third game, he and various other members of the squad were visited by a nyunga, who offered to help them win. They accepted, and won the third game 3-1. When the nyunga returned for payment, though, the Australians laughed him off. He responded by cursing them. They thought little of it as they headed off for a play-off against Israel for a place at the 1970 World Cup, but they soon would.

"From that moment when he put the curse on, everything went wrong for the team," Warner said. "We took 38 hours to get to Tel Aviv - that's the witch-doctor. We played 21 hours later without our three best players - that's the witch-doctor. We lost the game to an own-goal, a
deflected goal - that's the curse. We had a blatant penalty we weren't given - that's the witch-doctor."

Australia made it to the World Cup in 1974, but Warren turned his ankle in the first game and they lost all three matches. After that the failures mounted up, and Australia suffered defeat after defeat in the play-offs. Most painful, perhaps, was that under Terry Venables in 1997, when Australia faced Iran in a play-off to qualify for France 98. They looked well-set after a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Tehran, and were even better placed as they raced into a 2-0 lead in the second leg in Melbourne.

But then the floodlights failed. Iran regrouped and, when the game restarted, scored twice to qualify on the away goals rule. To Warren, the reason was obvious: "the curse," he said.

Shortly before his death in 2004, though, Warren took decisive action. Helped by the television presenter John Safran, who went to Mozambique and spoke to other nyungas, he participated in a ritual to lift the curse, supposedly contacting the spirit of the originally nyunga and
seeking his forgiveness. Two years later, Australia finally qualified for their second World Cup finals.

There is no reason now why they cannot go on to establish themselves, if not as one of the top handful of nations in the world, at least as regular World Cup qualifiers. Playing in the Asian confederation was designed to increase the number of truly competitive games they play,
to break the cycle of playing just one important tie - the World Cup play-off - every four years.

Next week's fixture against Japan isn't just vital in terms of World Cup qualification; it is vital to Australia's development.