Gor turn down dressing room over juju claims

Isaac Swila in Dar, Tanzania

Gor Mahia declined to use the dressing room reserved for them here at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday ahead of their crunch 2 pm semifinal match with Azam SC on superstitious grounds.

The Kenyan champions arrived here early for the customary pre-match briefings but declined to use the dressing room, leaving match officials with no option but to inspect them at the dug-out lobby.

The dramatic snub only serves to add fuel to the mouth-watering semis clash as Gor fight for a place in the final against holders Azam.

Later, in a post match interview after the 2-0 defeat to Azam, Gor coach Dylan Kerr admitted that the pre-match event affected his players.

“Definitively, it affected the players…we didn’t start the game well. The players were adamant that something wrong with that dressing room and they refused to go in,”Kerr told Kenyan journalists here adding that, “It was shocking because we couldn’t go into any room. I pleaded with them to allow us exchange the rooms with Azam, but they refused.”

Claims of witchcraft is rife in both Kenyan and Tanzanian football, particularly whenever the big clubs lock horns .