Inside football giants 35-year curse with seven cats, an exorcism and bankruptcy

MANY followers of the beautiful game believe in the power of curses and superstitions.

From Béla Guttmann’s Benfica curse which has seen the club fail to win European silverware since 1962, to Birmingham’s 100-year curse at St Andrews and Harry Kane’s trophy curse, belief is a powerful tool.

But one so-called curse hailing from Argentina is almost too wild to be believed.

This legend takes us to Buenos Aires for the Avellaneda derby of Racing Club and Independiente – the country’s second-most important derby behind Boca Juniors and River Plate.

Their two stadiums, El Cilindro de Avellaneda (now Estadio Presidente Perón) and Estadio Libertadores de América sit just 370 metres apart, marginally more than Dundee and Dundee United’s 322 metres.

The tale of the curse features the burial of seven black cats, an exorcism, toads, relegation, near-bankruptcy and title glory.

But before we get into the details of this legend, it is important to understand the history that came before.

Racing Club were the definition of a football powerhouse in the early 20th century.

They were the first club in the world to win seven league titles in a row (1913 to 1919) – five of which were undefeated – and the first Argentine club to win a national cup.

Racing, also known as La Academia due to their footballing excellence, were also the first Argentine club world champions after winning the Intercontinental Cup in 1967 by beating Celtic.

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In 1966 they had been crowned champions of Argentina for a 15th time, and understandably rivals Independiente were furious at their success.

And in a desperate bid for revenge, a group of Independiente fans are said to have broken into Racing’s El Cilindro.

Taking advantage of the fact that the night watchman was an Independiente fan, they broke in and buried seven black cats at the behest of alleged encouragement from a local witch.

This curse appeared to yield instant success as Independiente beat Racing Club 4-0 in December 1967 to win the Primera Division league title.

However, little did Racing know their plight had only just begun.

In 1970, the club sacked manager Juan Jose Pizzuti, who had led them to victory over Celtic before going through four different coaches in one season.

Five years later they suffered a colossal 10-0 defeat to Rosario Central before barely avoiding relegation by finishing second bottom of the league in 1976.

By 1980, the impact of the curse seemed real enough, and new boss Juan Carlos “Toto” Lorenzo opted to tackle the curse head on by finding the cats and removing them.

During the search they had success by finding a number of cat skeletons beneath one of the goalposts. But they were left one short as only six of the seven were found.

In a bid to reverse the hex, Lorenzo ordered six toads – said to be associated with cleansing and rebirth – to be buried in the spot the cats were.

But things did not get better for The Academy, and in 1983 they suffered the most bitter of fallout’s as they were relegated from the top flight for the first time in their history.

From an Independiente point of view, the cherry on top was that they got to deal the coupe de grace, with a 2-0 win over their rivals at the Libertadores simultaneously crowning them champions and relegating Racing.

Racing were back in the top flight after two seasons, but their curse was far from over as the 1990s added to the pain of the decades prior.

By 1998, enough was enough, and in February Racing called in the biggest guns they could in the entirety of Argentina, the Catholic Church.

God is a Racing fan. The devil is not

Racing Club fan banner

Huge crowds gathered outside the Santa Iglesia Cathedral in Avellaneda, with some estimates suggesting some 100,000 people followed the procession.

Father Horatio Della Barca sprinkled holy water on both goalmouths, with Racing president Daniel Lalín saying: “This is not an exorcism but an act of faith.

“The Racing fans deserve all the good times that they have not received for a long time.”

A banner hung around the ground is also said to have read: “God is a Racing fan.

“The devil is not.”

All told, this act of faith was said to have cost over US$30,000, but it was rewarded with Racing losing their next game 2-0.

And just one year later, Racing hit their lowest point as they were officially declared bankrupt on March 4 1999 after racking up multi-million dollar debts, with the court-appointed accountant issuing the statement: “Racing Club has ceased to exist.”

However, Racing fans – who had continued to attend in high numbers throughout the years of regression – refused to stand for the news, fighting legal battles, protesting outside parliament and occupying the club’s headquarters to prevent administrator’s taking control.

Some 30,000 are even said to have turned out for the club’s first game of the season and sang for ninety minutes non-stop, even though no teams appeared on the pitch due to it being cancelled.

It was from these ashes that Racing fans had their prayers answered.

In late 2000 the club hired Reinaldo “Mostaza” Merlo – a big believer in superstition – as their new boss, who insisted the seventh cat be found and convinced club bosses to excavate the pitch and dig up the concrete moat surrounding the pitch.

Finally after 34 years of searching, the final cat skeleton was found behind the goal covered in concrete, a spot allegedly suggested by the former Independiente supporting night watchman.

It was summarily removed from El Cilindro, and low-and-behold in December 2001 Racing ended their 35-year drought by winning their first title since 1966 against all odds.

Celebrating their victory, Racing fans held up a banner saying: “What ghosts? No ghosts. Merlo already said: Racing are Champions!”

Racing did not have to wait anywhere near as long to get their hands on the title again, with victory in 2014 and then again in 2018/19.

But whether it was all real or simply a stunning coincidence is up to the fans to decide.

Former Racing player José Raúl “Toti” Iglesias claims an alleged quote of him speaking about a “haunted goal” where cats are buried is false.

He told the Buenos Aires Herald: “There is no truth to that quote, nor do I remember it. Some things go around for years, but it’s not true, or at least I never saw it.”

Whether or not football gods exist, Racing were unfortunate to have a long period of misfortune.

Though many more fans of other clubs would be over the moon to have some of the success they tasted in the last 60 years.