Barry Fry: turning the air blue and the grass yellow. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Empics Sports Photo Agency
Other grounds have been cursed, although mercifully their managers didn't feel the need to paint the grass yellow. When Derby built the Baseball Ground in the 19th century, a group of Romany Gypsies were forced to move from the site. Their response was to place a curse that meant Derby would never win the FA Cup. Soon after, Derby lost three finals in six seasons. When they reached another, against Charlton in 1946, the club captain Jack Nicholson paid Gypsies to lift the curse. With the score 1-1 and extra-time approaching, the ball burst. It is seen as the moment the curse was lifted, and Derby went on to win 4-1.
It's not just grounds that are cursed, as we can see with this story of dead herring from Jostein Nygård. "Back in 1999, a local derby in the Norwegian second division between Alta and Hammerfest ended with the home team winning 2-1," says Jostein. "After the match, Hammerfest heavily criticised the referee, Nils Mikkel Sara, in the local paper. He was not too happy and demanded an apology; if not, he said he would 'gande' the team so that they would lose the rest of their matches and be relegated. (In Norwegian 'gande' or 'ganne' is a term used for Sami curses.) Terje Hansen, who was coaching Hammerfest, ignored the referee.
"Since Hammerfest had enjoyed great start to the season, this didn't seem like a likely outcome, but then they started losing match after match despite dominating most of them. At first the Hammerfest coach assumed they were just unlucky, but then the players started to believe in the curse. After talking to some old locals, the coach tried lifting the curse by sacrificing herring at a sacrificial stone in the area, but it didn't help. He was too stubborn to apologise and, sure enough, they ended up getting relegated.
"Here's a link to a 2005 Dagbladet article on the story (you could try Google translate). Mr Sara is still active as a referee. He has tried his magic skills on several occasions, both at national and international level, but I'm unaware of any other successes."
There was a success involving Australia in 2005, however. "Cursed football teams?" sniffs Matt Leonard. "You simply have to mention the Australian national team, the Socceroos, and their curse from 1969 that was broken in 2005 by the brilliant John Safran. Safran is not a football player, but an Australian football fan and media personality, who travelled to Africa seeking the aid of a witchdoctor to remove the curse. The whole adventure was also captured for one episode of Safran's exceptional TV series 'John Safran vs God'. There is more information here."
Many fans of the Colombian team América de Cali feel the club has been cursed since 1948. A local dentist, one of the club's most passionate fans, was opposed to the idea of the team turning professional. "If the team ever becomes professional," said Benjamin Urrea, better known as Garabato, "I swear to God that no matter what they do they will never be champions."
They did not win a domestic championship for 30 years – at which point, according to the Fifa website, Urrea and a group of fans performed an exorcism at América's stadium. They won their first national title the following season. (Other reports suggest the exorcism was performed by a singer and a journalist after they had won the title.) Either way, it was the first of 12 championships in a golden 23-year period, but many feel the Curse of Garabato still holds: América have never been champions of South America, having finished as runners-up in the Copa Libertadores on four occasions.
We've dealt with juju at the African Cup of Nations before, but if you have any more tales of curses, email knowledge@guardian.co.uk or contact us on Twitter.
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