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Ghosts of the Goal: Football’s strangest curses
0 Playsin 3 hours
🎃 Halloween Special 🎃 As a special treat, we dive into some of the spookiest curses in sports! From South Korea’s mysterious ‘fake gold medal curse’ to Liverpool’s long wait for a league title and Benfica’s haunting European drought, we explore the eerie tales that have haunted athletes and fans alike. Are these just superstitions, or is there something more sinister at play? Tune in… if you dare. 👻⚽
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Transcript
00:00:22
Killian Ginnity
Happy Halloween! We are back for our annual Halloween storytelling bonus episode with myself killing Unity and Connor Glennon. How are we doing Connor?
00:00:36
Conor Glennon
I am very well currently at time recording Newcastle are tuning up against Chelsea so I cannot complain but I don't know what's scarier the fact that we're going to be diving into some spooky tales on this one or the fact that Man United are actually winning a game at the moment.
00:00:53
Killian Ginnity
trick-or-treat season is really in play right now.
00:00:57
Conor Glennon
but
00:00:58
Killian Ginnity
um As you alluded to, we will be looking at some curses. Last year, I presented a whole array of haunted stadiums, ah witch doctors, ah loads of stuff. This year, you're going to tell me a story and I'll tell you one. um So did you know that Liverpool had a curse?
00:01:22
Conor Glennon
Well, the only curse is they're bloody fans, but we won't get into that. Um, well, what's the legitimate curse?
00:01:31
Killian Ginnity
So you say legitimate, that this is all hinged on the testimony of one Mr. Bruce Grobbeler, who is...
00:01:42
Conor Glennon
Full-time mad bastard.
00:01:44
Killian Ginnity
Yeah, yeah, in polite terms. ah So he reckons that after Liverpool won the title in 1990, of which he was a part of, their last ah Premier League title for it was nearly 30 years or you know 30 years that they'd won it and then in around 1992
00:02:02
Conor Glennon
Yeah, touching on you.
00:02:11
Killian Ginnity
He had a testimonial and he was sponsored by an African lager, Zimbezi.
00:02:20
Conor Glennon
Okay.
00:02:20
Killian Ginnity
So I'm notm not sure what not sure if that's actually Zimbabwe or if it was a not sure what part, but Zimbezi.
00:02:23
Conor Glennon
Yeah, yeah.
00:02:26
Killian Ginnity
And they were obviously sending beer over for the testimonial because he was being sponsored by them.
00:02:33
Conor Glennon
Nice sponsorship. Let's just, let's just call it what it is.
00:02:36
Killian Ginnity
Well, their form of sponsorship was even more niche because they sent a witch doctor with the lager to Anfield for the testimonial.
00:02:47
Conor Glennon
Okay.
00:02:48
Killian Ginnity
Now, Brendan, this story was told a couple of months before Jurgen Klopp got crowned Premier League champion with Liverpool, so this was coming in the context of maybe if this might happen.
00:03:03
Conor Glennon
okay as you do
00:03:05
Killian Ginnity
But it's also like, why did he wait till 2019 to say the story? um
00:03:11
Killian Ginnity
Apparently this witch doctor arrived at all the beer and they were a bit like, hmm, that's funny and interesting. ah But he went around the posts and he put a goat tail and water on the posts of both sides of the pitch.
00:03:27
Killian Ginnity
And then he got, then he got a microphone and said, if you don't have the jungle man, Bruce Groblier here, you will not win the league again.
00:03:39
Conor Glennon
Brave.
00:03:40
Killian Ginnity
So, so, Grablier, he ended up going back to South Africa. He went over to Canada and he came back. And it it wasn't thought of. It did us went through a very long dry spell, dominat like a spell dominated by um Man United, as a spell dominated by the money of Chelsea.
00:04:04
Killian Ginnity
And Grubbler went back for a game and he went down to the cop end and he peed on the post because he believed that this was going to break the curse.
00:04:16
Killian Ginnity
But he got thrown out. He only got to do one end.
00:04:19
Conor Glennon
Oh, Christ.
00:04:21
Killian Ginnity
He didn't in bit get to do Anfield Road End.
00:04:25
Killian Ginnity
That was the night Steven Gerrard slipped against Chelsea and they finished second that season.
00:04:27
Conor Glennon
no no No! No, this has to be a fib.
00:04:34
Killian Ginnity
This was 2013, 2014. He had peed on one side. He didn't get to do the other. They were so close to winning. And then Jared slipped.
00:04:42
Conor Glennon
And did he slip on the side that he didn't pee on?
00:04:45
Killian Ginnity
I'm not too sure, but it unraveled.
00:04:50
Conor Glennon
Okay, now, I'm not a conspiracy guy, you know this about me, I like laughing at conspiracies, but that's- that- that has me feeling in all sorts of weird.
00:05:00
Killian Ginnity
it's a It's of all times to happen and of all places for it to happen. And in 2018, 2019, he, Grabelier went back for a corporate game, a kick around with some companies, but he got to do it on Anfield. And the guy who invited him actually said to him, you have to do the business today. This is your opportunity. So Brucie got a water bottle.
00:05:30
Killian Ginnity
poured the water bottle out, went in into the toilet and peed in it.
00:05:34
Conor Glennon
Refill the waterfall.
00:05:36
Killian Ginnity
He did. And during the first half, he was then the cop end. And instead of taking drinks, he was pouring the water bottle on the posts.
00:05:49
Killian Ginnity
And then the second half, he went down to the Anfield end and did the same.
00:05:55
Killian Ginnity
At the end of that year, they won the league.
00:05:59
Conor Glennon
Okay, now look, first time's a coincidence, second time, um' ah there's some realness to that juju out there.
00:06:07
Killian Ginnity
So whatever, maybe it was just the freshness of the ammonia in his piss or it was the breaking of the curse, but the witch doctor's curse was lifted and the near 30 year wait for a Premier League title for Liverpool was ended.
00:06:29
Conor Glennon
So we need Bruce Gravelart up in Newcastle, but spraying on both goals, and we might we might get a sniff at a title.
00:06:38
Killian Ginnity
Well, as you say, like it's one of them kind of like, it kind of does give you that little kind of like chill up the back kind of like, Liverpool weren't the only team that was cursed.
00:06:45
Conor Glennon
Yeah, first time you're kind of like, OK, whatever. if you were If you left it there, I'm like, OK, it's funny, but like it's a coincidence. Second time round, I don't know. That really is kind of unnerving.
00:07:03
Killian Ginnity
Who do you have to tell me about?
00:07:06
Conor Glennon
Now, as you know, on this podcast, we are a global podcast. We are an award-nominated podcast. And one of our favorite areas of the world to talk about is Asia. And we've you know we've talked to football agents who operate out there. We've talked to coaches and club owners out there. So I kind of found ah and and an Asian ah focus story that I thought might might interest you. so
00:07:30
Killian Ginnity
that.
00:07:30
Conor Glennon
As we know, South Korea are an absolute Asian football powerhouse.
00:07:34
Killian Ginnity
100%.
00:07:35
Conor Glennon
um They've made nine appearances at the World Cup since 86. They reached the semi-finals, if you remember, in 2002. Ireland could have beat them at that, but if we hadn't got wrongly done by by Spain, but we move.
00:07:49
Conor Glennon
um And they got bronze at the 2012 Olympic. So, you know, they've they've had a very good run at things of Leighton, but they have not lifted the Asian Cup since winning it and in the first two editions of it, actually, in 1956 and 1960.
00:08:05
Killian Ginnity
why
00:08:08
Conor Glennon
um
00:08:08
Killian Ginnity
he that That's a long time for a big team. like That'd be like Spain not winning the Euros for 60 years.
00:08:16
Conor Glennon
ah like it Or even like the Nations League, something. you know um So they've qualified from the group stage at recent tournaments in Qatar. And ah they've got ah big players like Hung Min Sun from Tottenham.
00:08:34
Conor Glennon
And, you know, among the superstitions of the South Koreans, of of which there are many outside of football. and So kind of despite South Korea being one of the most technologically advanced countries, ah many South Koreans remain superstitious and consult the likes of shamans for medical reasons ah or just personal advice, really.
00:08:56
Conor Glennon
And they wildly hold beliefs that include the likes of associating the number four with death,
00:08:56
Killian Ginnity
Hmm.
00:09:02
Conor Glennon
and the writing your name in red ink will bring bad luck. And and even dreaming of pigs will invoke wealth. So they're they're open to these superstitions.
00:09:13
Killian Ginnity
Yeah, like it kind of sounds a little bit Irish.
00:09:13
Conor Glennon
and
00:09:15
Killian Ginnity
I think we can kind of, ah yeah, that and just it just has that kind of like like i don't like, I think most people in Ireland would be ah skeptical.
00:09:17
Conor Glennon
I think there's a bit of the Mayo curse in there. um
00:09:26
Killian Ginnity
But if you heard a scream in the night, you'd presume it's a banshee.
00:09:30
Conor Glennon
yeah yeah so among one of the biggest superstitions is ah is that the title drought is down to fake gold medals now these fake gold medals so
00:09:43
Killian Ginnity
Fake gold.
00:09:47
Conor Glennon
I'm not talking about chocolate coins you get in your trick-or-treat. I'm talking about the medals that the Korean Football Association handed out to their players when they celebrated the second of their two wins in 1960, as that tournament was in South Korea. So massive thing for South Korea to win on home soil. you know Second tournament on the bounce has only been two of them. therere but you know The talk of Asia and from a footballing perspective.
00:10:15
Killian Ginnity
yeah
00:10:16
Conor Glennon
And but the medals turned out to be gold plated lead and many believe.
00:10:20
Killian Ginnity
Yeah. I hope you didn't do the metal bite thing, just get lead poisoning.
00:10:29
Conor Glennon
Well you say that many of like many of the players said if you rub it hard enough with your finger it just kind of flaked off. So it was closer to those chocolate coins that I'm talking about.
00:10:37
Killian Ginnity
well
00:10:39
Conor Glennon
um But it many believe in South Korea that a corrupt official pocketed the money earmarked for the medals. But the ironic thing is, is South Korea's hopes of winning the tournament have gone down like a lead balloon ever since.
00:10:57
Conor Glennon
um you know they It's hard to believe, but again, it's kind of... you know i'll I'll give you a little bit more like that kind of... in your kind of, I suppose, second time around putting the water bottle on the posts level.
00:11:15
Conor Glennon
So the outraged players returned the fake medals um and demanded that the KFA, the Korean Football Association, present them with real ones that weren't, you know, gold-plated led.
00:11:27
Conor Glennon
And they had to wait more than 50 years to receive them. and Yeah, 50.
00:11:30
Killian Ginnity
Nifty.
00:11:32
Conor Glennon
So, you know, a couple of the squad weren't around at this point and they passed on unfortunately. So in 2014, yeah The KFA finally made the pure gold medals for the 1960 winning team and and they could only contact three of the footballers, surviving footballers and family members for three more who died.
00:11:50
Conor Glennon
So six of what? I don't know, 22 on a squad.
00:11:54
Killian Ginnity
yeah
00:11:55
Conor Glennon
And they had this big do and you know they presented them and and they kind of admitted what happened publicly for probably one of the first times, or at least on the public stage. So six medals are, I suppose, with with family or actual players on the team. And then the following year, the team reached the Asian Cup final for the first time since 1988. But they still couldn't still couldn't do it. They lost 2-1 to Australia in extra time. And the curse still lives on.
00:12:27
Killian Ginnity
still i don't really but like if you were to believe be a believer in karma fake gold medals and not getting another gold medal for yourself for nigh on 60 years is very karmic
00:12:30
Conor Glennon
I don't know about you. Do you believe in this stuff?
00:12:52
Conor Glennon
I'd be trying, I'd be getting the CIA to find any living family member of these boys and getting them a real medal ahead of the next tournament.
00:12:59
Killian Ginnity
I'd be getting a bottle of Breeze Carpenter's piss.
00:13:04
Conor Glennon
I think, I think the next, I think the next couple of, or the next Asian cup is 2027. So they got a couple of years to either get Brucey, uh, get Brucey's products or, or, or hand out some, some fresh gold medals.
00:13:18
Killian Ginnity
Well arguably the current squad was their best chance of doing that but like by the time that comes around they won't have Hong Minh Sun and like that's a massive loss and I don't know if they have the kind of the talent to replace that so we will see if the curse will run below.
00:13:35
Conor Glennon
I dare say that I think this curse will stumble on and on and on. Like a steady stream of Bruceys.
00:13:40
Killian Ginnity
Have you?
00:13:42
Conor Glennon
You know what?
00:13:46
Killian Ginnity
Have you ever heard of Béla Gutman?
00:13:50
Conor Glennon
I'd love to tell you, yes.
00:13:52
Killian Ginnity
Béla Gutman was a ah Hungarian football coach who survived the Holocaust.
00:13:59
Conor Glennon
Oh, wow.
00:14:00
Killian Ginnity
He had a bit of a playing career, had been at an Olympics. He was a man to speak his mind. um When he wasn't happy with the ah accommodation at the Olympics, he hung up dead rats around the place.
00:14:12
Conor Glennon
That's a statement.
00:14:13
Killian Ginnity
You know, subtle, subtle.
00:14:13
Conor Glennon
Okay.
00:14:15
Killian Ginnity
um
00:14:16
Conor Glennon
Let him know you're there.
00:14:17
Killian Ginnity
Yeah, but he had an amazing mind for football. He popularized the 4-2-4, so he did.
00:14:26
Conor Glennon
Okay.
00:14:27
Killian Ginnity
That was his biggest innovation. And at that point, that was like very defensively minded. It was that kind of like WM kind of thing, ah what had been kind of the way it was, you'd have tree, two, two, tree.
00:14:34
Conor Glennon
Hmm.
00:14:41
Killian Ginnity
And so by just putting in what we would now consider a relatively modern shape, he really advanced things on. And he had a lot of managerial positions, but most famously he had managed ah maybe AC Milan, probably be quite known.
00:14:57
Killian Ginnity
You know, that there was that time anybody that's played like FIFA over the last couple of years, there's them legendary tree Swedish strikers. and they were when And Sweden won the World Cup in the fifties.
00:15:10
Killian Ginnity
They were his strikers. Like they they were at the Swedish triangle of Milan and they were his.
00:15:11
Conor Glennon
Okay.
00:15:16
Conor Glennon
that's it That sounds like a movie in itself. The Swedish Triangle of Milan.
00:15:18
Killian Ginnity
Yeah. um the Considering he was, I'd spoken like he left many of the clubs due to disputes, um like he left AC Milan and in dramatic circumstances where in his final press conference he says, I have been sacked.
00:15:37
Killian Ginnity
even though I am neither a criminal nor a homosexual, goodbye.
00:15:41
Conor Glennon
Okay, well...
00:15:43
Killian Ginnity
um But he was undeniably successful, even going over to Sao Paulo and winning a league with them, one of their first ones. But where his name is most synonymous with is Benfica. So he'd actually yeah ah you' gone to Portugal with Porto and won a league with them.
00:16:02
Killian Ginnity
and then he went over in 1959 to Benfica. And in his first year, he sacked 20 senior players.
00:16:09
Conor Glennon
How many did he have?
00:16:11
Killian Ginnity
Not many more than that, um but he brought through many young players and bought young players, including a young Mozambique striker who would go on to define the era, be arguably one of the greatest footballers of all time, and lead him to his great success being Eusebio.
00:16:32
Conor Glennon
Oh wow.
00:16:34
Killian Ginnity
So why do you agree with his methods?
00:16:37
Conor Glennon
He unearthed a talent, yeah.
00:16:38
Killian Ginnity
He knew what and he was doing and and his impact was immediate. They won the league, they won it actually twice in a row. I think it was in his second season he led them to the European Cup Final and won.
00:16:56
Killian Ginnity
which is incredible considering the five previous European cups were won by Real Madrid with the legs of Di Stefano and Puskas.
00:17:06
Conor Glennon
Five on the chart.
00:17:07
Killian Ginnity
Five on the trot, I believe it was the first five they won.
00:17:10
Conor Glennon
Wow.
00:17:11
Killian Ginnity
So Benfica was the first ones to take that title from them. And then they did it again the next year. In 1961, they bet Barcelona 3-2.
00:17:22
Killian Ginnity
In 1962, they bet Real Madrid 5-3.
00:17:25
Conor Glennon
It doesn't hurt having your CBO on your team.
00:17:29
Killian Ginnity
Well, when you're the one that put you save you there, you can take all the credit. And so obviously that's in immensely successful. So he asked for pay raise and thereafter electing a new president. The club refused to which there's no proof of this. But ah if you ask anybody, this is how the story goes.
00:17:55
Killian Ginnity
Gutman stormed out, shouting, not in 100 years from now will Benfica ever be a European champion.
00:18:05
Conor Glennon
And let me guess...
00:18:07
Killian Ginnity
Whether or not he truly believed it, his prophecy has had a has cast a long shadow over the Portuguese team.
00:18:19
Killian Ginnity
Since he left, so he left in 1962, he did go back in, ah I believe it was 1965, but to much less success. um But since his initial departure, Benfica have reached 10 European finals, eight in the European Champions League, two in the UEFA Copy Europa League, and they've lost every single one.
00:18:34
Conor Glennon
Great, and and and to get to 10 European files, there's nothing to be sniffed at.
00:18:45
Killian Ginnity
They even lost to Chelsea in the Europa League, the year that they've done the Europa League and then Champions League.
00:18:51
Conor Glennon
Yeah.
00:18:52
Killian Ginnity
um It's borderline supernatural because there's been many times that luck has not gone their way in ways that would surprise you. Before the substitutions were brought in the game, their key midfielder got injured early on.
00:19:14
Killian Ginnity
missed the rest of the game so they were playing against 11 men and they only had 10 for most of the game and that 11 men they were playing against was Man United with George Best and Bobby Charlton and this is when Man United won their first European Cup.
00:19:28
Conor Glennon
Okay.
00:19:30
Killian Ginnity
like even in the 2014 Europa League final, they lost on penalties. And at that time, do you remember Luis São, their captain at the centre back, the Brazilian Baldy dude, he was there from 2003 and he said luck was not on our side.
00:19:36
Conor Glennon
Yep.
00:19:46
Killian Ginnity
There was almost no way for the ball to go in. It was as if every time they were getting a chance, it would go against them.
00:19:58
Killian Ginnity
Maybe this is psychological. Maybe it's this kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that if you believe it, it's not going to happen.
00:20:04
Killian Ginnity
Eusebio believed it, though. He believed it very much because in the 1990 European Cup final, it was Benfica versus AC Milan, and it was in, I believe, Vienna, which is where Bella Gutmann was buried.
00:20:21
Conor Glennon
Okay.
00:20:22
Killian Ginnity
So Eusebio visited his grave and begged for his forgiveness. and they still lost.
00:20:30
Conor Glennon
I mean you can't write this stuff.
00:20:34
Killian Ginnity
The curse is said to last until 2062.
00:20:38
Conor Glennon
Get betting boys.
00:20:39
Killian Ginnity
So they have another 38 odd years, but it's one of the longest and seemingly most accurate curses that I've come across.
00:20:54
Killian Ginnity
But who knows? Do you believe it?
00:20:58
Conor Glennon
I think I do. I think I do. at the fact that yeah Until you said you saved me, I went knocking by his grave. I was like, okay, okay. but i'
00:21:07
Killian Ginnity
This is something that is literally from when it was pronounced, shall we say, that it was felt. One, because of who was saying it, this would be like Sir Alex Ferguson coming out and putting a curse on that United. You would take notice of that. But the effects of it were almost immediate. Within four years, there were losing finals on the trot in the European Cup. And the fact that they've never even won one of the for want of a better word, lesser European cops, considering how many of them there is now.
00:21:42
Killian Ginnity
it's It's a little bit chilling.
00:21:44
Conor Glennon
I will say a part of me with these things. It's the same thing with, you know, the Mayo for Sam Brigade. I do think part of it is, you know, the lore of this gets in players' heads and they use it as an excuse, but it's definitely food for thought, my man.
00:22:01
Killian Ginnity
Well, on that bombshell, our Ouija board to the podcast world comes to an end for another spooky season. Let us know if there's any other curses we missed, or any other scary stories that we should know about. Connor, happy Halloween.
00:22:21
Conor Glennon
Happy Halloween, dude.