"Witchcraft" Sparks Congolese Soccer Riot

Say what you want about American sports fans, but the real crazies as far as that goes are the football (soccer) fans of Europe, Africa, and South America. I can't remember the last time fans were killed at a sporting event in the United States, but in the footballing world it happens surprisingly often. Sometimes these deaths are accidental, as in the case of fans stampeding out of a poorly designed stadium, but the rest of the time they are due to brawls and riots.

That being the case, you would expect the teams on the field to keep from doing anything that might enrage the fans, right? Well, apparently this player didn't get the message.

Nyuki football club was losing to its local rivals Socozaki in Sunday's game when the club's goalkeeper decided to intervene.

Radio Okapi, a local broadcaster funded by the United Nations, said the player dashed up the pitch incanting "fetishist" spells to weaken the opposing team.

The game, a derby match in an eastern province of the Central African country, quickly broke up into a brawl between the two teams of players.

A local police commander then tried to intervene to break up the fight, but he was pelted with rocks by the crowd.

Matters quickly got out of hand as fighting seized hold of some sections of the stadium. Police fired canisters of tear gas and spectators stampeded for the exits.

The charge resulted in carnage: 11 dead and several others injured.

The most important message to take away from this is that if you are a magical practitioner and athlete who wants to use your powers to help your team, the most useful thing to practice is casting spells without any visible words or actions. It's more difficult, but you can work at it and you will improve over time. Especially if your sport happens to be soccer.