Top 7 superstitions for football fans

The world of sport is a funny place where all sorts of things are possible, including breathtaking, glorious, sensational, unexpected, and bizarre moments. Football is particularly strange simply because it is the most popular game in the world.

More than three billion people watch football regularly. It’s a mind-boggling number and it clearly shows that soccer fans are extremely diverse and different. One of the things that make football fans so strange is their belief that certain objects, things, or actions are good for their teams.

Yes, we are talking about superstitions that add a dose of mystery and magic to the football realm. But there is something we have to tell you right away – some superstitions are stranger than others. In this post, we are going to focus on the top seven interesting beliefs among soccer fans. Let’s take a look!

1.   Laurent Blanc kisses Fabien Barthez

To say that the French national team was good in 1998 would be a serious understatement. A star-packed team won the 1998 World Cup with authority led by some of the sport’s greatest names such as Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry.

However, many football fans in France still believe that their national team won the World Cup because the defender Laurent Blanc used to kiss a bold goalkeeper Fabien Barthez in the head before every match. It still stands as one of the most iconic football images in sports history.

2.   Deportivo Garlic Cloves

Deportivo La Coruna is a famous Spanish football team that helped many players kickoff a big career. And if you ask their fans, Deportivo is so good at home games because they place garlic cloves around the pitch to fend off evil spirits. This reminds us of people who visit the best new bingo sites in the UK because they choose platform games and try luck based on their superstitions. They are mostly not fans of trustworthy playing, but they do believe in miracles and magic like garlic cloves.

3.   Throwing Salt on the Pitch

This story is not too sensational, but we share it because it represents one of the oldest examples of superstition in soccer. Namely, the president of the Italian club AC Pisa, Romeo Anconetani, used to throw salt onto the field in order to bring his team luck. Pisa fans followed the same pattern and threw salt on the home pitch prior to every single match.

4.   Chelsea Fans Throw Celery

Salt is not the only thing fans throw on the pitch. On the contrary, they get creative and use vegetables such as celery. Chelsey fans used to do it all the time, at least before the club officially banned it in 2007. The club decided to introduce the ban because spectators once attacked a few players using celery as a weapon. It may seem surprising, but that’s the way things work in Chelsea’s part of London. 

5.   Benfica Has an Eagle

Do you know that the Portuguese club of Benfica actually holds an eagle as their mascot? Instead of going for one of the modern online entertainment symbols and mascots, Benfica is going for the eagle flying over the stadium before the home match begins. The crowd loves the ritual and it does seem to bring the club a lot of luck as they have been one of the two best teams in the league for a while already.

6.   Leaving or Not Watching the Match

We believe there is not a single football fan who hasn’t felt like his presence or absence would do his team well at a given moment. For instance, your team lost the game the only time you actually attended a match live, so you end up avoiding the stadium and watching your favorite team online or on a TV set. This is probably the most common superstition in sports.

7.   The Playoff Beard

Finally, we need to mention a famous case of the playoff beard. The superstition is simple – you and your fellow fans don’t want to shave beards before the end of the playoff season. This ritual is not only present among football fans but also among players and coaches.

The bottom line

Football fans come from all parts of the world and they can definitely look a bit unusual or even bizarre at moments. This is especially the case with supporters who develop strange habits in an attempt to help their teams thrive.

In this article, we analyzed the top seven superstitions among football fans. These are the most interesting superstitions we know of, but feel free to write a comment if you know other crazy details about football fans – we would be glad to see it!

AUTHOR BIO

Leslie Alexander is a sports geek and a Content Lead at Gamblizard. She is writing blog posts about online gambling, sports betting, and new technologies. Besides blogging, Leslie enjoys traveling and long-distance running.