Again, specter of the paranormal referred colloquially as ‘Juju’ has been raised in Nigerian football but this time in its top tier soccer league, the Nigerian Premier Football League, NPFL, during its midweek fixtures in Ilorin, north central Nigeria.
Seasoned coach, Tunde Sanni, recently plucked back home from the South eastern state club, Abia Warriors, to help halt a poor run of Kwara United football Club, on Wednesday evening, told bewildered newsmen that his club’s poor home form isn’t ordinary.
“I have experienced it as player.
” I know what it means to have serious problem at home.
“So we are begging everybody to sheath their animosity so that the team can move forward.
“If we say that we want to overlook it, sometimes this is not ordinary, I can assure you, because I am a student of that.
” During our time, when Kwara United was on tops, when there is problem at home there a problems on the turf,” he said.
This was after defeating a hard fighting rival, Bayelsa United by 1-0.
But apparently this claim of paranormal in football is not just a Nigerian thing, though.
During the Olympic soccer qualifier, women’s football, between Nigeria and Cameroon, an incident happened resulting the match being put on hold.
Cameroonian player, had made runs without the ball into the Nigerian goal post, as it were, and as later explained, to break the ‘juju’ that had made the Nigerian goal keeper invincible.
Coach Sanni in Ilorin, Kwara state capital appear to believe that phenomenon is real, despite winning his home match on Wednesday against hard fighting Bayelsa United by a loan goal.
“Getting those three points has been very difficult as you can see from the match.
” We needed the three points because the players need confidence to tackle other matches.
” It is today after the match that I know that we play better away than at home but we are going to correct it.
“It is not good not to have confidence to play on your home ground; your home ground first before doing away matches.
“We are not doing well at home. You need to see what we played in our last match away at Enugu. You can’t believe that it is the same team that is doing same playing at home,” he said.