Juju in Ghana Football: How Swedru All Blacks tricked Kotoko into a match and scored them 2-0

Ace sports journalist Dan Kwaku Yeboah has expressed opposition to the belief in the existence of black magic, popularly referred to as juju, in Ghana football.

According to Kwaku Yeboah, the existence of juju is purely psychological and that football matches are won on the pitch and not elsewhere.

Kwaku Yeboah stated that while he does not believe in the juju phenomenon, he has, in his decades of journalism, witnessed incidents of juju machinations.

He recounted an incident where a match between Swedru All Black Stars and Asante Kotoko was delayed for minutes because of a juju directive that whichever team stepped on the pitch first was going to lose the game.

Kwaku Yeboah explained how All Black tricked Kotoko into appearing on the pitch first by sending on their youth team.

“Personally, I do not believe in juju, but I've had incidents where clubs have done juju in my presence. In 1999, George Adusei Poku was the chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko. He had issues with the then Otumfuo and quit Kotoko for Swedru All Blacks. He took along some of the best players from Kotoko.

“In that season, All Blacks were supposed to play Kotoko at the Swedru stadium. The match was supposed to start at 3:00, but by the time we got there, none of the teams had reported. Rumors began to swirl around that a juju man had predicted that the team that stepped foot on the pitch first was going to lose 2-0, so the teams were unwilling to enter the pitch. The Kotoko players who learned of the situation had been hiding behind a school building.

"All Blacks got wind of what Kotoko were doing and allowed their Under-20 players to appear on the pitch, pretending to be the first team. Immediately Kotoko realized that All Black Stars were on the pitch, they came. The Under-20 players went back, and the main team came on. They defeated Asante Kotoko 2-0 in that game,” he said on the KSM show.

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