Three strange soccer superstitions from The Question of Sport Podcast

Sport is full of superstitious people, and perhaps no sport has more superstitions than football. Here are three of the craziest curses in football dug up by The Question of Sport Podcast.

1. A manager urinated on his pitch to ward off a curse

Barry Fry was the archetypal old-school football manager who spent some four decades in charge of various clubs. In December 1993 he rocked up at the St Andrew's stadium for a colourful period as the new man in change of Birmingham City.

Football manager Barry Fry keeping dry on the touchline when manager of Birmingham City (image: Getty)

After a positive start, his new team went on a disastrous 15-game winless streak which lasted over three months. It was then that Fry learned of a 100-year-long curse alleged to have been put on St Andrew's when City had moved there from their original home, Muntz Street, in 1906.

Determined to end Birmingham's awful run by any means necessary, Fry set off to seek advice on lifting the curse early. On his return to the ground he proceeded to urinate on all four corners of the pitch – running from corner to corner mid-flow – having been told this would ward off the curse.

And maybe it did exactly that, with Birmingham proceeding to win seven of their next 10 games. However Fry's epic wee was in all vain as City were still relegated at the end of the season.

2. The ashes buried at Anfield

Few managers have quite the legendary status of Bill Shankly of Liverpool. He was one of the forerunners of the mind games and positive speech that feature in many managerial toolkits today. And Shankly wasn't averse to pedalling a few legends of his own.

One story he told was that a man’s ashes laid buried behind the goal at the Kop end of Liverpool's Anfield stadium. The Kop end was thought of as a sacred place with a mythic nature, able to drag the ball in for Liverpool and keep it out for their opponents.

Whether there is any truth in the tale remains unproven, but the Liverpool team still prefer to kick towards the Kop end in the second half.

3. The Norwegians who sacrificed a herring to save their team

Formed in 1994, Hammerfest FK are a team from the most northerly part of Norway who have spent their existence in the lower divisions of their nation's league. In 1999 they found themselves in the third tier of Norwegian football and having started the season well were facing one of their local rivals, Alta.

A herring, for illustative purposes only (image: Getty)

After Alta won the game 2-1, Hammerfest's manager Terje Hansen was highly critical of the referee, Mr Nils Mikkel Sara. In turn, Sara demanded an apology and said that without one he would put a curse – known locally as a gande – on the team and they would be relegated.

Hansen refused to apologise, and the curse was placed. From that point Hammerfest fell out of form and found themselves slipping slowly, but surely, down the table.

At this point Hansen, his players and their fans started to believe that there might be something in the curse. They took advice from some local seafarers who claimed they could lift the curse by killing a herring on a local sacrificial stone. So they did.

Sadly for Hammerfest, and even more sadly for the poor herring, it was too late and the team were relegated.

For more superstitions from the world of sport, including some magical facial hair, listen to The Question of Sport Podcast