Fixing the World Cup

Just as European soccer teams have physiotherapists for the World Cup, African teams have witchdoctors who invoke supernatural assistance to put their players ahead of the competition. “They bend the lines, bewitch the ball, befuddle the referees (and) paralyze goal keepers,” Bartholomäus Grill, the Africa correspondent for weekly newspaper Die Zeit, wrote about the witch doctors — and sometimes their mischief making even leaves the field.” For its part, however, the Confederation of African Football has banned witchcraft: “No substances may be sprinkled over the playing fields and there can be no witch doctors on the bench with the teams.”