Football without chicken

Nigeria fans were deprived of the talisman

African fans who arrived in Kaliningrad are filled with anxiety. The Nigeria team before the first match of the starting world championship was left without the main talisman! The city authorities officially forbade African fans to carry chicken stadiums to the stands. This was announced the day before by the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the region Andrei Ermak: “Of course, we will advise them where the chicken can be bought. We are ready to satisfy the most eccentric requests. But in no case can you go through with a living chicken. ”

Given, in principle, the superstition of football players, coaches and fans, but, coupled with national African beliefs, shamans and various kinds of witchcraft, concern is understandable.

But the problem is not new, back in 2010, at the World Cup in South Africa, fans of the Nigerian team disputed the decision to ban the chickens, calling it ridiculous.

One of them, John Khuroro, was indignant - the happy talisman team would like to take every self -respecting fan, and after the match - take home and give friends. (According to the reviews of Nigeria - Kuritz in local courtyards - a huge number, apparently, are really brought from the championships. And they use them as intended - as food - last, he hinted at the emergence of a talisman, assuring that there were no problems with the missing of birds into the stadium in the 1998 World Cup. It is not surprising that the attitude to the chicken in France is more respectful than anywhere else, the rooster flaunts even on the official logo of the national team. In the case of Nigeria, the connection of the eagle (which flashes in the center of the emblem and gave the nickname to the team) with a smaller home fellow, exists by default. Nevertheless, in 1994 and 1998, Nigeria (with chicken) reached 1/8 of the world, and in 2010 took the last place in the group without its symbol.

By the way, the appearance of home birds on football fields and stadiums is not uncommon. Six years ago, Blackburn Rovers fans launched a chicken dressed in the club’s shape on the field. So they protested against the Indian company, which managed the team and, in combination, implemented fried chicken wings. And in Belgium, the leadership of the town club "Bershot", mired in debt and performed in the regional league, held a meeting with the fans on the eve of one of the matches. Where one requirement was voiced - to abandon pyrotechnics, the fines for the use of which the team is not affordable.

Belgian fans used chicken instead of pyrotechnics:

The fans responded, and the next match brought the chicken instead of the fires, which were periodically thrown out onto the field.

The game abounded in stops until the stewards were able to clean the field of uninvited guests. How much this trick cost the club, is not specified.

And in Russian stands, now so zealously defending the right to Wednesday, free from birds, a funny incident has recently happened. In early April, fans from Vladivostok came to Voronezh for the match of the National League. Long before the start of the game, they expressed dissatisfaction with the coach of their team and prepared a kind of surprise for him. In the 15th minute of the match from the central rostrum from under the jacket of a man towards Alexander Grigoryan, a chicken flew out. Simultaneously with her appearance, the guest tribune tightened the screaming, which was reduced to the comparison of the essence of the head coach of the “beam” and the name of the male person with a domestic bird. The team from Vladivostok lost, Grigoryan could not come to the post-match press conference for health reasons, and the fan, who, who left the rostrum, received a fine of 5 thousand rubles and a ban on visiting football matches.