This Paranormal Life - Meet the Real Witchdoctors Cursing the World Cup

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

LONDON LIVE SHOW⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tickettailor.com/events/cheerfulearful/2084541 In 1969 Australia’s national football team the Socceroos were on the verge of qualifying for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, but they realised they needed a helping hand and turned to an unusual paranormal source… They hired a local witchdoctor in Mozambique which would set in motion paranormal dominoes causing chaos for the Australian team for 40 years. Kit Grier Mulvenna and Rory Powers also explore how the paranormal side of the World Cup hasn’t gone anywhere, as Witchdoctors in 2026 have cursed Harry Kane! Become a commune member to get access to bonus episodes: ⁠https://thisparanormallife.com⁠ Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our Secret Society Facebook Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Official TPL Merch!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Edited by Philip Shacklady Researched by ⁠Ewen Friers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the run-up to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, the national team of Australia, aka the Socceroos, were set to qualify for the greatest competition on Earth. Not only that, it was going to be the first World Cup in the nation's history, when in Mozambique they hit an unexpected snag and had to take desperate measures, desperate paranormal measures. They unwittingly set in motion supernatural dominoes that would have a catastrophic effect, including a curse that would last, decades. What the hell did they do? What are some of the wildest sporting curses of all time? And if football is the beautiful game, what's the ugly game? World of Warcraft? Answers to these

questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Oh, no, to This Paranormal Life! The weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday me and Rory discuss a different paranormal tale deciding whether we think it's real or not. How the hell are you doing, Rory. I'm doing great kit. Supernatural Domino's is actually what I call when you go to a graveyard and kick over a line of tombstones. And they kind of then all tumble down in a line. But I understand today we're talking about in a different context. Yeah, I thought you were going to refer to, you know, just ordering, being so hungover, you order a supernatural amount of Domino's pizza. Which is pretty much every time I order from Domino's. It's enough for, it's enough for me and

seemingly the four ghosts that are also eating with me in my apartment. Right. Yeah. Past, present, future. And Rory. The guy that drops off the pizza is like, hey, hope you and the whole family have a great dinner. And I'm like, yeah, my family. He's like, yeah, okay, have a great one. My family, I actually, I have a really hot wife. And I have a cool, I have three cool children. I actually, they're right. You can't see them right now because they're just around the corner, but they are there. What's that, honey? No, I'm just talking to the pizza man. What are their names? One of their names. Because I've been delivering here for years and I've never seen anybody but you. You're usually in your underwear as well. Well, her, she's actually, she's from Slovakia. So her first name is. So much harder.

Garalik, Deep. Garalik, dip. Garalik, dip. Is that last name, dip or the full name? That's great. The name on the order was Rory. Rony, actually. This is Rony Jr. and me, Papa Roni. Jesus Christ. A pepper Rory pizza does sound good. Anyway, let's get into this.

Welcome, guys. If you cannot tell if you are just listening to this episode, which is probably most of you, let's face it. If you were watching this on, say, YouTube or Spotify or This ParanormalLife.com or Patreon, if you're watching the video, you'd be able to see that we are surrounded by beautiful World Cup footballing, decorations. That is because we were doing a bit of a World Cup special over here at this paranormal life. It is the beautiful game. It is the competition of champions. I think they famously call it that. That's the tagline. And it's wrapping up this week with the final on this weekend. So we thought, what better way than to find a paranormal case based all around the world of football? Hell yet. I haven't watched a game yet. This World Cup, I haven't watched the game yet. Delete that.

I'm going to have to get right in here at the end. We're going to lose our sponsorship. Which, listen, you want to start watching when it gets down to like the final four, when the heat's on. People watching this, they don't need to be told that we're not the biggest football fans in the world. They can tell because of the football kits we're wearing and the country's flags we've chosen. Right.

Well, I'm wearing an Ireland top and correct me if I'm wrong, they didn't even qualify for the World Cup. They didn't qualify at all. Sure. China, a huge China flag behind Rory's head. I had no idea what size these flags were going to be, by the way. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to front with y'all.

I went to SportsDirect.co.ukk and sorted from low to high price-wise, which is why I'm wearing an Argentina top and a Denmark scarf. Right. That's because Denmark have been knocked out of the tournament and that was going cheap. But that doesn't matter. What matters is we're here to celebrate the glorious game, what has been a brilliant tournament and some of the crazy stories to come out of it. But it turns out, and you might not know this, that there is actually a lot to get into.

Now, the coolest and wildest most paranormal World Cup happened all the way back in 1969, and that's what we're going to talk about today. But we're also going to touch on some very, very recent 2026 World Cup, the one we're in right now. There have been some interesting paranormal storylines developing as well, which we'll touch on later. Whoa. But before we dive into today's case, remember to head on over to This paranormalLife.com, where you can become a member of the commune, become a member of This Paranormal Life,

and get a ton of stuff in return for as little as five bucks a month. You can get access to monthly bonus episodes, weekly behind the scenes, after-party episodes, giveaways, the whole lot. There's a ton of stuff going on over there. Join the commune today at This ParanormalLife.com.

Our members also got first dibs on live show tickets, as they always do. We've done a couple of world tours now, and this year we're doing one very special live show. only won this entire year. In October, Sunday 11th of October, and the tickets are available, well, through the link in the description of this podcast, actually.

Hell yeah. So come and see us in London this October. It's going to be a crazy live show. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales,

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Wayfair, every style. Guys, it's 1969, and the nations of the world are battling it out for a place at the FIFA World Cup being held the following year in Mexico. Now, Australia weren't traditionally a football nation, but after an unbeaten streak in Asia that year, coming away with wins against both Japan and Korea, the Socceroos were feeling very positive. Is that actually what they're referred to as? Is that the name? At least nationally. The socceroos? It's just the most Australian-sounding thing in the world,

which I kind of love. I don't hate it. I just out of curiosity. But it is true. The Australian men's football team were traditionally known as the Socceroos. And there is, in fact, if you do want to look it up, there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to,

it's just a table of every Australian sports team and then their nickname. You have the Cucoburras are the men's hockey team. The boomers are the men's basketball team. Dad, I got hard done by. I'm going to guess they haven't had any recent success, the boomers. They're not really breaking ankles in 2026. Just their own.

They're all old as fuck. We've got the wallabies, the men's test rugby team, Walleroo's for the women. And a special shout out to, I hope we can drop the clip in this episode, but there was a pretty funny news storyline last week, I believe, because Australia, spoiler alert, made it into the 2026 World Cup.

and they were competing and doing okay. And it was being reported about in the BBC News. And so there was a great news clip of a BBC News host trying to pronounce the name Sokaroos. And I think she thought it was a guy or something. And just play the damn clip. No goals in extra time, took it to penalties. But then Sequeira's missed two spot kicks.

The weird thing is you have to hear it like three times to even figure out what's going on. but she calls them the Sekiros. And everyone was just like, did she think it was like a Greek guy? Yeah. He's like, the Sekiros were up by 1-0 against their opposing team.

As I say, the Sekiros were feeling very positive in 1969. And a win against Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, we'd put them in a great position for their final playoff game against Israel and almost sure bet later that year. With the two-match fixture against Rhodesia ahead, the road to their first World Cup looks set. Now the Aussies arrived in Maputo in late November

but despite their confidence the first game was evenly matched and ended in a one-all draw that meant everything hinged on the next match and yet they drew nil-nill this time too just four days later down. Results still inconclusive meant a third and final

match was organised for three days later on November 29th but as they waited the soccaroos were rattled They couldn't come this close and not make it to Mexico now. Something big had to change. That's when one player heard something very interesting and took it to a team meeting.

All right, team, we can't lose this. We need ideas fast. We could drop our 352 formation and trial 4-4-2. They worked back in Rio. That's good. Good. I say we bring Alan off the bench. He's been looking really good in training.

Put him in midfield. That could change everything. Okay, great. I say we... What about a Nyunga? Excuse me? You know, a Nyunga, kind of a local traditional witch doctor. I was talking to a local journalist.

He said lots of people locally use a Nyunga for blessings or good luck or to curse people. So the Socoros did what any saying team would do. They ignored all the good ideas and went straight to find a Nyunga to hire them. A group of players approached this local witch doctor who agreed to curse the Rhodesian team. So do we have a deal? I can perform the spell you desire. But such powerful magic will cost you. Ah shit.

Like, with our souls or something? What? No, like money. Oh, yeah, that's fine. Listen, we need this win. We'll pay double, triple. Good. Then it is done.

A pact with the spirits has been made. I will perform the magic. There's just one more thing. Go on. I might need that Rolex too. Oh, come on, you're just having a go now, mate. It said that the Njonga went under the cover of night and gained access to the pitch only hours before the game the next day.

So weird. He buried animal bones beside one of the sets of goal posts, and with some kind of ritual placed a curse on the Rhodesian team. Who let this brother in with bones? Who let that happen? No one said what type of animal bones they are? Could have been a little... Hey, we've had bones in the podcast before, by the way.

And they came in a little pouch. Sure, yeah, I ordered bones on the internet. Should we elaborate? Yeah. Maybe. You know, it's a weird thing until you're at a sports game eating chicken wings. And all of a sudden, there's a hell of a lot of bones inside that stadium. You know, so maybe he was like, came in in a side bag and he's like, oh, what these?

I just went to KFC before this. Just want to check out the field a little bit. Why do I think it's not chicken bones? Or at least if it is chicken bones, it didn't come from a box. He's wearing a ram skull on his head like, f*** bone. Just don't I take a little walk around the stadium. Check out the field. Cubeon.

Can't stop by security. Oh, hey. No, you know me, just a big fan of football. Yeah. Oh, I love the stuff. Yep. Can't get enough. You look insane.

Go sports team. Go sports ball. And look, while some of the squad laughed this off as a kind of quaint local gesture, others, especially Captain Johnny Warren, took the whole ceremony very seriously. And maybe he was right, because the next day, the team stormed the pitch and walked away with a solid 3-1 victory. Whoa! On first glance, the curse worked a treat. Phil, let's get a look at Mr. Warren, the captain of the football team, just for Rory's reference.

Look at that guy. Wow. Jeez. It looks like he's wearing a helmet of hair. It's hard to believe that guy wasn't winning every match he set foot on the pitch for. I mean, you just know as well because it's the 70s we're talking about. He's probably 16 years old in that photo. You're probably right.

Almost certainly. That is the thing. It's football. He can't have been more than about 24. and yet he looks, what, 46? I was going to say 45. Yeah, he really does. He's the most manly man I've ever seen, and he was probably 28.

Anywho, it appeared as though the witch doctor in his curse was legit. Next stop, Israel. I thought you were going to say, like, on the way to the game, the opposing team's busts hit a wall. It exploded and, like, oh, God! It's like, what, you want to win the game, right? No, like in the game, like football. You're a 30-car pile-up on the motorway.

Jesus. The deed is done. If you could bring back the bones later, that would really be great. I only have one set of those. A Boeing 747 crashed into their training camp, killing like 200 people. Damn. Holy shit. How much did we pay that guy again?

Damn. It was a steel. No. No, that's a, hey, it's a good point though. If you're going to pay for a curse. Yeah. Look, we know how Monkey Paul wishes work. You know, we've all seen obsession.

I haven't, but I understand it's a monkey paw situation. You've got to be very, very specific when you work with a magic man. Yeah, you do. You've got to be very, very careful, otherwise it can go south. But as the team were celebrating, before they left Maputo, they were approached again by the Nyunga. He had created the curse, and they had won. He'd held up his end of the bargain.

He wanted to be paid. The Socceroos laughed his demands off. They said it had just been a bit of fun. He couldn't seriously think their victory was anything to do with a curse. There was no proof. The $1,000 that the Nyunga was demanding was ridiculous. They point blank refused to pay up. Crazy behavior.

I mean, really? Really? You're going to stiff me? The guy who just did the magical curse? I'm literally still holding a wand. You're gonna piss me off right before you go to the World Cup for the first time ever. Do what you want, y'all. what you want, you old fool.

We ain't paying. I might be slightly paraphrasing here. We don't know exactly what was said, but the facts remain. The Sokaroos headed to the airport in great spirits, and not a penny was paid. True to his word, the Nyunga immediately reversed the ritual

cursing the Sokaroos instead. Oh yeah. The bones weren't even out of the pitch, guys. All he has to do is leave them there. Yeah. It's like when you go to return an Amazon product, They're just like, honestly, you don't even need to send us this stuff. Just tell us and we'll, like, we'll do it.

It's fine. And you know that if this guy's cursed one football team before, he's probably got a ton of football curses ready to go. You know, he's going to be firing them off, you know. Schingardian Leviosa. Cletus deletus. Your shoes are disappearing off your feet. You know?

Shin Guardia Leviosa is nasty work. Wow. Cleetus is too. You all are barefoot in the field. Yeah. Again, hey, that would all be, by the way, very tasteful, funny curses to do, again, not just like making someone's nutsack explode.

Right. Which is going to happen. It's going to be, yeah, it's going to be the curse. If you're still winning after halftime, that's when just the nut-sec exploding spells are coming out. Yeah. Like, it doesn't even have anything to do with football. Yeah.

There's no easy way to say this. But this marked the beginning of a decades-long spell of bad luck, and the effects were almost immediate, from minor inconveniences like travel delays to more crushing blows. Captain Johnny Warren explained when interviewed years later, quote, we took 38 hours to get to Tel Aviv. That was the witch doctor.

We played 21 hours later. without three of our best players who were all suddenly sick. That was the witch doctor too. We lost the game to an own goal. That's the curse. He's keeping tabs. I said it earlier. This guy took it seriously when some of the other teammates didn't.

I got caught in a hotel with a bag of cocaine and two sex workers. You know that was the witch doctor? You think I wanted to be in that situation? It was uncontrollable. Embezzlement, Class A drugs, prostitutes. Witch doctor, witch doctor, witch doctor, witch doctor. We're going to. Ah, he's like he's got control of me.

I have no control. According to Warren, the soccer's even had a blatant penalty they weren't awarded. They played Israel who won overall. And just like that, Australia's World Cup dream was over. Between then and as late as World Cup 2006, Australia have taken many bruising over the years, with tons of defeats and plenty of tantalizing what-if moments. The curse theory has kind of endured. Just look at the record.

1986, they lost out to Scotland and the qualifiers again in 1990 against Argentina. 94, they came very close, holding onto a draw against Argentina on the first of two playoffs. But when they went to Buenos Aires with the entry to the World Cup in their sights, they were beaten 1-0 in the second fixture. Brutal. Now, all of these could be linked to being a crap football team. That much is very true. Yeah. But even Australian football fans.

even the biggest cheerleaders, they started wondering what the hell was going on in World Cup 98 in France. It was 3-1 to Australia against Iran. They just had to survive 15 minutes when Iran scored twice out of nowhere on Australia failed to qualify again. Brutal stuff.

People started to believe in the curse even more. I don't want to bash them too hard because once again, I'm wearing the jersey of a country that didn't even qualify for the World Cup. Right, we're hate... Hating from outside the club, I think is what it's referred to. You all made it. You're in the winners.

Like, that's already a huge achievement. So I can't really criticize. But we were hit with a little different curse called the English. Now, I don't want to get into it. But I'm not even talking about history because we have a problem where, and I'm not a football historian, I don't know if this is even true, but we have a problem where there's like a lot of people who could play for Ireland, but they could also play for England or for other teams. I want to say, is it Declan Rice, Jack Grealish? There's a couple of English players, really good English players,

who have like Irish ancestry, might have even been trained, scouted through the Irish system, and then once they get old enough, they're like, all right, look, they're like, I got the letter to go to wizarding school. Right. England. You know, you know who the wildest? Do I stay here or do I, you know, do I stay here in the D-Leaks, or do I go to England where I could have a brighter future? And then they piss off and then we don't have anyone left. I think I'm right in saying this, but I believe the wildest of all is Harry Kane. Really?

I think because of his family heritage, he could technically play, he could play for Ireland. I had no idea. But it's like, tear that in. No, five. God damn.

I know, that's tough. But also, don't we, as a country and, like, football team, don't we also have, like, isn't it one of the sports where Ireland and Northern Ireland are like two different teams, else.

Yeah, that too. So then... There's a lot of infighting. Again, problem because of the English. If it was one country... God, darn! We would have had like one team united in the best of all of it. Because if you didn't know

for like Irish rugby... Ireland is one of the best teams in the world. Yeah. And at rugby, granted, not a team that everyone in the world plays, but we're pretty damn good. Pretty great. And that we have a united Irish team, both

north and south, to the point where They actually had to, fun fact, they had to commission a new anthem for the rugby team so that it would include everyone. And if we did that with football, then maybe we'd be getting somewhere. Yeah, they're like one of these is way too religious. The other one is way too filled with hate. We need to write just a new song that just says Ireland a bunch. Not saying which is which?

You say Ireland, Ireland, Ireland, a bunch of times. Yeah. Wasn't it written by Phil Collins? No What? No. Look it up. Phil, look it up. Who wrote it? Somebody wrote that shit.

Wasn't it sung by Michael Bolton? You're only going to be laughing. Who the beautiful island? Who wrote an Irish rugby anthem? Phil Collins. Sorry, making a mess. Phil Collins? You all are going to be.

Well, the Phil. It was Phil Colton. And you were a Philly C. Didn't Phil Collins do like the Tarzan soundtrack? Yeah. But hey, but hey, when was it written? When was it written? You'll be in my heart.

Bro, 95 could have been Collins, though. Wasn't Collins, but could have been. All right, well, what else is cool to write? Nothing. Bro, replace the Irish anthem with son of man, a man in time, you'll be. Just pick a tune from Tarzan. And we could replace that. I hope if we get a United Ireland that the national anthem is Say LaVie.

I think that would unite the Celties. From Bewitched? Yes, from Bewitched. Say you do, say you won't. Say you'll do what I don't. Say you will say to me. Say lavi. And then it has an actual Irish dancing breakdown in the song.

There's no way that shit is copyright. You can just play that film. You can just play that shit, to be honest. What was the fuck? point of all of that. Controversial take, though, Irish people hate supporting England in football. I do it. I support England in it.

At the time of writing England are still in the... I do. You've been absolutely done. But come on, you've been in London longer than me. You can't say it doesn't... Yeah, and guess who I support? China. He's pointed to draw a massive China.

Okay, but they're not in it anymore. I actually don't know who I'm supporting right. now. A lot of the countries that I would have supported have been booted out, unfortunately. Listen to me, this is why... Yeah, well, okay, well, okay, I mean, I kind of want France to win most of all because France are the most badass. Another best team. But secondly,

I don't know why you're screwed on your face. They're by far the best team. Mbapé. Need I say more? But here's why I support England. It's because... You changed, man. We all live in this shit hole together. Okay, look at me. We need to play And we need some dramatic music right now, Phil. Because we all come from the fucking mud, all right?

Beans on fo' toast. Shit crisps, doesn't matter what flavor you are. They all taste the fucking same. The crisps are fire. What are you talking about? Black tea with milk in it. No one else in the world does that. Everyone's like, what are you playing at?

Britain and Ireland, we're like, yes, this is the shit. This is what's going to get us through our bleak, grey existence. In this shit weather we have to live in. So... Beautiful outside today. It's a stunning weather. So England from the mud. Scotland from the mud.

Wales from the mud. Ireland from the mud. Northern Ireland, not a real place, but from the mud. We're all from the fucking mud. So whenever I see those pale run around that pitch, you know, Harry Kane can bear it. Even though he's like one of the best strikers in the world, he's like run...

He's like malnourished and shit because there's no sunlight, no vitamins in Britain. I feel patriotic. I'm like, yes. Because we've got something that France doesn't. Why does this sound like a war speech from the two towers that the Urichai are giving to the rest of the orcs? You're from the mud.

Saraman from the mud. We're all born from the mud. Now let's go kill a f***ing of it. It's back on the menu, boys. If England, if it comes home, he's back on the menu. I think you know what I'm trying to say, all right? They're talking about the ring. It's coming home.

It's coming home Frodo's coming home. Frodo's coming home. Look, getting back to the point at hand, the point I'm trying to make is that between 1970, 2005, the socceroos only qualified once for the World Cup. And when they did,

they failed to score a single goal and never left the group stage. And it wasn't just the World Cup, it was all international football for them. As Captain Johnny Warren said, quote, It's off the field as well. The way the game is self-destructed, shot itself in the foot so many times.

It's been its own worst enemy. You always think, ah, that witch doctor, this is the curse still working. I think it's personally because they're not from the mud. Australia is too sunny, too many vitamins. They've got too good a quality of life. From the sand. They're not orcs on the inside.

Look, Roy, I think I love how much. Johnny is into this, that the captain of the team is like, is like, that fucking witch doctor, fuck us. What do you make of this so far? Does this seem like a typical sporting curse to you? I mean, I don't know enough about, what was the specific term you used to describe this thing? Nuga? Nuga.

Nuga is the sweet, doughy stuff you get inside some. Some of those treats, yeah. Treats, but, no, Nunga. Nunga. Yeah, I'm not really familiar with this specific. genre of witch doctors before. Yeah. It's not the first time that we've talked about curses in sports.

I think I did an episode of the podcast. It was based on a baseball curse, one of the longest running in baseball franchise history until this season with the Atlanta Braves. I don't know what the hell they did. Something's going wrong recently. I think Thanos did something he clicked his fingers. And it's like my team were doing very, very, very good

and now very, very, very bad. So it, I mean, it does happen. It's that kind of like cause and effect thing, chicken and egg. Which one came first? The team's inability to score goals or the fact that they got a witch doctor involved. Yeah. It's kind of, it's tough. Yeah, it is genuinely tough.

You know, we've covered a lot of curses. We think that curses are possible to be real and have an effect. On the other hand, there was such thing as sports psychology. And, you know, we've all seen it. There'll be sports teams who, are sucking balls extra hard in the first half of a game and then they go in, you know,

in a half time, they go of a little huddle, they have a little chat, they play crossy road on their phones, suck on a couple quarters of oranges or something, and something happens, something clicks in the next half, and they just go psycho mode.

Yeah. And it goes to show of the power of psychology. That's why sports psychologists exist, is because maybe if you get it into these guys' heads, they're cursed, they play even worse than they would have If you want to know the value of psychology on the performance of a sports team, but maybe you do not watch any sports yourself, I would say think of the halftime break during the Looney Tunes Space Jam Showdown between the Tune Squad and the Mon Stars, where I believe it is Bugs Bunny gives quite a rallying speech to the team and tells them he has magic water. and if they all drink the magic water

they're going to play basketball really well turns out it's just water guys but they think they've tapped into some psycho juice he really gosslet them didn't he really did and they basically think they're on steroids for part of the game so they are just they're going crazy they're playing better because they think

they've been buffed similar to this witch doctor situation it could be that the game that they played particularly well in one it wasn't because the other team were cursory Maybe it's because they had the mentality of believing that they had been empowered to win that game. And now psychologically they're in a position where they believe that they're cursed and that's weighing on their performance. Or the witch doctor worked.

It's real. Sorry, and the bones are powering the other team now. Either. Yeah. It is mad though, isn't it? People do say that how, like, psychology is amazing. You'll even notice it yourself with, like, music is like a performance-enhancing drug, you know? You know, people say, oh, I can go crazy further in the gym when I'm listening to, you know. Metallica.

Right. You know, yeah, I'll be skateboard. Ireland by Phil Collins. I'll be listening. I'll be skateboarding. And I'll be kind of having a chill time, you know, just like, yeah, it's whatever. Maybe I'll practice a couple kickflips. Then Spotify comes on shuffle.

Oh, yeah. Big Dog by ASAP Ferg starts playing. I'm like, I'm going to break both my legs right now. And I jump off the biggest thing I can find. It's crazy what it does to you. Yeah, fires you up. It really does. Right now, for a limited time, everyone's part of the Buick team, even you.

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and the flavor of veggie mite. You can't keep these six sons of bitches down. So by the time the qualifiers for the 2005 Cup started to roll around, one man said, enough is enough. Australian satirist and media personality, John Saffron, decided to take measures into his own hands. Over the course of an episode on his comedy docu television show, John Saffron versus God, John looked into the curse. With Captain Johnny Warren on the show for first-hand details,

Saffron decided his only option was to visit Mozambique himself and see if he could reverse the curse. All right, Phil, let's see how John got on in Mozambique. Anyway, I seem to have got distracted. Back to the mission at hand, removing the curse. When you do your Nyangar ceremonies, who are you invoking? Is it like spirits? Is it ancestors?

Is it God? Good question. We call on our ancestors. How does it work that your Nyanga powers can overrule the other Nyangas powers? One Younger's powers can overrule another Niyunga's curse. And I believe we're going to be sacrificing a chicken. Can I eat the chicken afterwards?

Can I cook and eat the chicken afterwards? Oh, cool, excellent. Hey, Danello. I think they said yes. Where are we going? We'll bite a chicken. Paulino and Miriam said, for the curse breaking to work, we had to go back to the place of the original curse. Okay, we're off to the soccer stadium.

This is kind of very low-key and wholesome. Wow. over there. The Nyunga said I had to be the intermediary for Australian soccer. They're not expecting me... Wow, they're really doing this. They've got a bottle of whiskey and a couple chickens. Polino had to channel the spirit of the long dead Njanga who had placed a curse.

He was now no longer Polino but the Nanga from 30 years ago. Dude, and these guys look legit. They're in very traditional dress. They're working on John. Next was compensating the Nyanga to make up for Johnny Warrin and the boys ripping him off. boys ripping him off. I've brought you this stuff here because in 1969, the Australian soccer team did a bad thing. Oh, so it's like a gift.

Like, I brought you two chickens in a bottle of whiskey. Help them out and then they left the country without paying the Nyanga. He says that, yeah. So the Nyanga says if you take this medicine to your country, the previous Nanga will forgive you. Don't look back. Just go straight. If you look back, the spirit will all. with Chessingil.

Oh, oh, here we go. All right. We've cut up. Oh, God. We've slit the chicken's throat. We're going to have to blur this. Oh. They're spraying.

They're pouring blood all over him. What the fuck? The chicken open like a capric sale and they're spreading the blood all over John. Oh. Phil's got his head in his hands. I don't want to watch this. Have you watched this before you showed you? I have.

I have. I have. I have. I should have done a trigger warning for sure. They're now spreading. the blood all over John. He's being a real good sport about it. But this is this real witchcraft,

dude. I would walk away from the situation feeling more cursed than ever. Nothing but evil, like covering my body. Now he's washing his face in chicken blood. Yeah, they've got a bucket of chicken blood. He's washing his face. He's rub it all over his body. This is pretty gnarly stuff, dude. This is football.

This is the mud. This is the mud. This is the mud. I can tell they're going to win from Nile. They're out. They're out. They're already out. He just kicked over the bottle. The bucket of blood.

He'll give you medicines. He's like, bros are all staying with blood. He regrets this immediately. And you wash. So it's back to Australia for the final part of the curse breaking. No, back to Australia. The Australia was taken off injured after about 39 minutes. And he dropped, he virtually threw

two in. That's the witch dog. This is... The captain is, the process is, first we have to wipe down our arms, our legs and our face. No blood in sight. They're cleansing themselves. They've got the previous captain who was cursed all those years ago.

And he's a good sport. He's getting stuck in. Yeah. You can tell he really wants this. We shall see. When's the next game where we can test whether this is all work? I hope it works. Yeah. The long trip to Mozambi.

I mean, there's the real crunch. when the World Cup's on, isn't it? And do you reckon these curse breaking is going to work? Yes, it will. Yeah, I believe in it. Okay. I love the former captain. He is, bro, is invested.

Ever since the 70s, right through to today, he's, uh, I think it was researcher Ewan pointed out that even in the TV show, as soon as late, they're like, okay, we're back to Australia. It just cuts to the previous captain, just immediately, he's talking about the curse. He's like, that fucking curse, bro.

Yeah, that's rare. We would have been. Thoughts, Roy? I didn't like that at all. I really didn't like that. I hope we blur that for the video. It's real magic though, isn't it? It's real magic.

Well, not so far. Not so far. And I like, as I said, no... Well, okay. As of recording this, Australia are no longer in the World Cup. They have been kicked out. Can you still blame it on the curse? Because, like, getting this far into the World Cup is incredible.

They've done very well. They got kind of far. They aren't pretty far. So, I guess it's all down to perspective. as to whether or not they're still cursed. Well, look, we have to, that's great. You're talking about the present day, which is very, very relevant. Trying to move on desperately.

But you have to give it to the Njonga. What a wild, you un-de-sense. You under no circumstances have to hand it to the Njonga. No, you have to hand it to them. They did this in like 2005 whenever it was. Then they immediately qualified for the, in German. for the World Cup in 2006. And they actually made it out of the group stage

into the round of 16. This was a first for Australia, and many believed it marked the end of the curse. Australia have actually qualified for every World Cup since. Wow. Whether it was, John Saffron's reversal ritual or not remains to be seen. As Rory says, no spoiler to say Australia.

And we are repping them hard here. You'll see in the video if you're watching this, I have a humongous... New Zealand. Flag behind me. They didn't just qualify for the 2026 World Cup, but actually made it through to the group stage, sadly only to be knocked out by Egypt.

Is it all good news? Of course not. Did they get to the knockout round? Because for the first time ever, there's 32 teams in the knockout round instead of 16. Sure. And while they did score a goal in the knockout round, it was a known goal.

The same thing that actually also happened four years ago in the 2022 World Cup. Look, it's... Oh boy. seems as if they've mostly got the curse lifted, but they're not exactly blessed either. Right. Yeah, they didn't get any powers from it, which is, I guess, the best case situation, it's like, we're just not messing with wizards and witches anymore. We're just a football team now. Which, by the way, is like a realistic takeaway. It's like, you take away the curse. They still

weren't that good before the curse. You're not blessed. Yeah. Like, they were struggling. Like, wasn't the whole point was they drew twice in a row that they should have won? Yeah. And then they They were like, we're going to lose. That's why I assume the second chicken was four. It was like one to reverse it and then one to be like, and now bless it. Yeah. We've got to go further. While we're here, third chicken, giant hogs all around?

No, infinite money or world peace. Whatever, whatever you can do, whatever you've got in that order. Giant hog, infinite money, glitch, world peace. Okay. The hogs, by the way, that's what the test rugby teams call in Australia. But, Rory, the really crazy thing. and all of this, is that even though I think that is

the craziest most paranormal World Cup story there is, and let's face it, could possibly be, unless aliens literally land at the next World Cup in 2030. That might be as paranormal as it ever gets. But that being said,

it turns out paranormal curses are back in style and they've been front and center of the 2026 World Cup. Yeah. Have you seen anything about this? I haven't, but I know that when we We recently did an episode of the podcast on Etsy witches.

We learned that pretty much one of the main reasons for people paying witches on the internet to do curses or blessings is almost entirely sports. Yeah. Because it's either betting or people that are personally invested, they're blessing their sports team or cursing a different sports team. So I can only imagine this has been a big thing in the World Cup. Yeah. You've got a strange situation where every central African witcher. doctor has an intimate knowledge of kind of college football in America. Because everyone, any, you get two 16-year-olds together, they're on Etsy buying, you know, half a dozen curses at the

weekend. Yeah. Especially with Polymarket and Kalshi now. You know, you place a risky bet. Might as well bolster your chances with a couple of curses. But look, I'm talking about something very specific. This all started when England had Ghana as one of the... matches in the group stage and a Ghanaian witch doctor named Nana Kwaku Bonsam posted online quote I am working on Harry Kane I have shown what I am capable of before so I know what work I must do to stop him I'm not wishing him serious injury it will be just enough to stop him against my country I will do my work so that it can help Ghana Phil let's get a visual on the Nana real quick.

He looks the real deal. Damn. Yeah, that guy looks hardcore. I like his rebands. The combination of kind of traditional Ghanaian dress and rebands is very hard. Yeah. This post went very viral. And I'm going to cut to the chase here.

England didn't beat Ghana. They couldn't beat them. They drew. They didn't score. This was a surprise to pretty much everyone, except Nana Quacko Bon Sam. I looked it up and England were tipped with a 75 or 80% chance to win against Ghana

and they did not. Wow. It was an upset for them to draw. Now that's pretty cool, but interestingly, the story didn't end there. Nana said that he would release Harry Kane from the spell. He gave this following interview with Pierce Morgan about it, Phil, please.

Do us the honors. So can you just confirm that there is now no ongoing curse against Harry? He's allowed to score now. Yes. Right now, what I'm saying is that right now, once I did everything I played for him and then now he's friends together. So as for the one I did it, I just released for him. And I won't this match he's going to play. He's going to do a good job for all the people around the world

to see how his performance is going to be. It's not going to be like the way Ghana is because the way I tie him very well that you cannot score Ghana because Ghana is my country and then I want my country also to be happy. But in terms of when it comes to any country that is going to perform and then I make him a wishing good law for you to perform very good in that country. That's very good to hear. Well, there you go. Very wholesome.

There you go. The guy said it himself. Now, that's very interesting. We're getting an insight in how these witch doctors work. he said look Harry he's not really cursed he's more tied

in such a way that he could not score a goal against my country Ghana because I specifically protected Ghana but he's basically I'm released him

I wish him the best of luck I hope he goes on to score many goals against other countries that's kind of nice that's great the very least yeah

and that he did England at the time of writing which is a bit scary because by the time this comes out they will either be in the same semi-final or out of the competition.

Yeah. So we'll get a picture, but Harry has been doing pretty well after that. So it's weird, isn't it? He was cursed by the witch doctor, couldn't score a goal, and then now he's let rip, and he's scoring against, actually on paper, better teams. Yeah. I love a good upset. It's always exciting when that happens.

So look, guys, that is bringing us up to the modern day to literally what's happening this week in the world of football. the paranormal. We've seen how the threads of paranormal in the World Cup go all the way back, like whatever that is, 56, 57 years back to the Socaroos entering the World Cup. God knows, there's probably even crazier stories going back, you know, to, I don't know, whenever the World Cup started, the 30s or something. So there's probably crazy stories all through those years, but I think that's one of the most nuts ones. But I just couldn't believe it when I was seeing post after post about the witch doctor. I believe.

leave there was also maybe a Brazilian witch doctor at work. Damn. You know, where like, you know, like during a game, the cameramen will be panning around the audience, you know, finding supporters who look cool or whatever. And it panned to a guy who has like white chalk all over his face and he's like blowing bone dust into this. He's like, he's like performing spells mid-match. Yeah.

So, dude, you know, you think the world has moved on that we've got self-driving cars and, you know, burrito taxis and deliveroo, but actually, magic is more essential than ever, apparently. We really shouldn't have given up on the concept of wizards. Yes. It seems like a lot of other cultures

haven't quite relinquished this era of magical shamans and witch doctors, but I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, the UK, Ireland, we don't have a ton of wizards anymore. That's true.

It kind of started and ended with... If we had a guy in a robe in the hat, like with a wand shooting spells, You know, maybe that could do something for us. And you're right. And like, we almost started that shit. Like, there's definitely like ancient Celtic mages and druids. Yeah. You know, you've got, what's his friggin' name?

Merlin? Yeah. Merlin. Yeah. Bro started it all. The original wizard. The OG. Yeah. So, like, we should be bringing it back.

That's what should be coming home. Magic. Yeah. All right, we're done here. Guys, at the end of the end of it. every episode of this paranormal life. We do have to decide whether we think our case is really paranormal or not. This episode, I think it's quite easy to focus in. I think while we could look at Nana and the Ghanaian witch doctor's curse on Harry Kane, which is pretty funny, I think we should actually focus on the much more storied, evidenced, researched case of

the Sokaroos, 1969, Mozambique and the Nyanga, placing that ritual, doing that curse, which seemed to bind the Australians for almost 40 years. Yeah, this is kind of a tough one to come down on because it's not even like there's evidence. The evidence is just that they don't... The evidence is that they've qualified for every World Cup since the curse was lifted. Yeah, I mean, there'll be a lot of teams who weren't cursed or were cursed that have done the opposite is that they were once good and now bad. If you look at basically every sport and every franchise in it, you'll have teams that won something huge

and then didn't qualify for 20 years and then now that, I mean, look at the Knicks, right? In basketball, isn't that like a huge thing? Like, they haven't won the finals in X many years and then all of a sudden they're on this crazy tear. I bet if you look into that, there's probably people saying that there's been like paranormal curses against them and that's been broken.

But I don't know, it's kind of a trickier. How many teams hired a magician? Well, the bones thing is crazy. Bering bones in the stadium is just the most, I do not know how anyone allowed that to happen. It's an epic story, yeah. It's pretty crazy. I do really love it.

And, hey, listen, I'm just happy the Australian football team are having some success. I know we have a lot of listeners. Not that much success, but yeah. Well, they make it to the world. We don't even make it in. Yeah, but that's because of the English. And I can't decide if I hate them or not because I'm supporting them. I'm supporting them, but God damn it.

Where's my cat? Oh, what they've done to our national football team. I know we have a ton of listeners in Australia, and I've said before on this podcast that Australia isn't real. So, you know, that begs into question whether or not the football team's even real. But I do, I would really, in the next year, if we can't do it through the podcast, even personally, I would really like to visit Australia. I'd really like to go.

Yes. I'm only laughing because we keep telling the Australians we're coming for a tour and it sounds like you've downgraded that too I just want to go full stop I'll be there and you can come meet me in a pub somewhere and buy me a pint and we will do a live show

and I will do a live show and we'll FaceTime Kit no I'm sure we will in the future but yeah I'm just glad to see the team is doing better yeah maybe you want to work on that blessing instead of the curse the blessing now is needed

You know what the, because we're going to come down on a yes or no right now, but, you know, look, I know before people have to comment this relentlessly, I know how it works. It's very clear that maybe it's less that a curse is at play and more that's the pattern of oftentimes whether countries are good or not at a given sport is whether that country has very strong national sports of its own. You see this with Australia. They're mad about rugby. They're mad about cricket. And they're really good at it. There's sports that they really, really, really, really, really like. We see this with America, USA, Australia, USA. Neither of them considered strong football, soccer teams, historically, because America is preoccupied with, in a kind of funny way, only playing sports that they invented, you know, baseball, basketball, American football.

And there's, of course, Australian rules football. And actually, this sounds like I'm huffing copi, but Ireland is a pretty similar thing. People wouldn't know it because Ireland did have a heyday of football, but Gaelic football and Hurling are much bigger national pastimes in their public of Ireland

than international football. So maybe that's the takeaway, guys. Is it a curse? Well, it's a blessing and a curse when you've got dope sports of your own because you just care less about this little old thing called football. Yeah, that's true.

Are you ready for your conclusion? You go first. First, and I just want to preface it by saying, if it's a no, this was a waste. I bought, I bought flag. Again, to be completely clear, for anyone who's not watching this, we have a giant Japan flag, giant China flag, giant New Zealand. Flag, I'm wearing a Danish scarf. What the fuck am I going to do with that when this is over? None of these teams are in the World Cup anymore.

Argentina is actually. Oh, really? Argentina crazy game against Egypt last night, bro. It was insenia. They won that? Dude, dude I was at the gym when they When they were

When they were When it was when it was 2-0 Egypt Yes Bro That's no I'm gonna watch the highlights After this That's crazy messy messy

He went messy mode He was messy mode Brough So Argentina So it's a clean up the messy Argentina still in the competition Okay So I might have to hold on to that one

But I just want to Just be careful England flag Stay in there obviously Because we love England so much Yeah It's a no from me this week

Jesus Christ, all right. Oh, fine. It's double then. It's a double note. Scarfs coming off. All right. Thank you for joining us on this special episode. We hope you are enjoying the World Cup, wherever you are in the world.

We hope you're enjoying this paranormal life. If this is your first episode, welcome. If it's your millionth episode, welcome back. We hope you've enjoyed it. There is so many more episodes where this one came from. Just in your podcast app of choice. Scroll. Check them out.

There's hundreds and hundreds. But if you get tired of those or if you really, run out, head on over to This ParanormalLife.com where there's lots of really, really, really weird and wild episodes called bonus episodes. There's hundreds of those. There's weekly behind the scenes after parties. I'm sure we'll be catching up more this week on this trip together as we hang out and I'm going to go watch the football this week.

I'm sure we'll be talking more about it. So this Friday there'll be a behind the scenes episode coming out just for subscribers. Oh, yeah. This paranormal life.com. Head on over and become a member today, mate. And an apology once again for the Australian accents that were attempted during this podcast. I have no excuse as well because I've been listening to the Fairbairn podcast, which is these Australian guys. I've been listening to that loads.

And last week I watched Kit's favorite movie, the rom-com called Anyone But You, which is set in Australia. Did you actually watch it again? I did. I watched again. Dude, you're, there's words I want to call you that I can't call you. Really? I have no excuse not to have a better Australian accent right now. But that's why I'm going. I'll be there at some point. Well, that's actually... It's the worst.

It sucks, dude. Weird. So, stay tuned for everything we just mentioned. Australia eventually after party this Friday over at this paranormal life.com. And we'll be back on Tuesday, of course, with a brand new paranormal tale. Feel so illegal to have the AC running right now. I know. I know. It's crazy.

I'm like, I see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Next we're gonna leave the f***ing fridge running, guys. It is nice and cool in here too, so this is great. That's awesome, yeah. If you told Kit and Rory about this, they'd have tears in their eyes from even like four years ago, you know? Honestly.

They fixed the AC in Pirate Studios? Oh, my beautiful child. You're not in Pirate Studios anymore. My sweet summer child. You have your own studio. Really? Yeah. You, Kit and Phil.

Kit and Phil. Who's Phil? He's the best. You're going to love him. And Kit's commute is barely going to be six hours. What? Yeah. The thing is, the beautiful thing is Phil's going to replace Kit in Rory's life. So he won't experience any loss in fun times.