The Before and After of League Games’ Prayer Ritual (2)
Approaching the changing teams’ changing rooms on this particular Match Day in Port Harcourt between Sharks and Warri Wolves match in Port Harcourt just before kickoff, you would almost think you were in a prayer meeting in the new generation church genre. There was a din of loud players and intense clapping of hands which were later followed by noisy prayers. This scene which is replicated at almost all venues on Match Days and it isn’t out of place to try and locate the place of prayers in determining match outcomes. Does it really work?
It can be said to have become a national football culture cutting across different categories of our National teams as they are found huddled up together to pray when in tournaments and even friendlies. Nigerian Football Premier League club sides do it before and sometimes after each half. Enyimba International for instance have their own unique and different routine, rather than the whole team gathering to pray, the various departments - attackers, midfielders and defenders hold hands to pray on their half of the field just before kickoff. Of course this is after the team must have prayed in the dressing room according to the captain Chinedu Udoji. His namesake and counterpart at Heartland, Chinedu Efugh says his team prays in the dressing room hence no need again to pray on the field before kickoff.
But our teams, just like the country is made up of different players of different religions, majorly Muslims and Christians. So who does the praying? The Muslims or Christians, who do we trust that their prayers will get answered?
Again, Efugh of Heartland says; ‘ we usually nominate two persons to pray, one Muslim, one Christian and they take it one after the other”.
It is same for table toppers FC Taraba where there are also two sets of prayers both in the dressing room and on the pitch. Jelili Akinbode of El Kanemi warriors reveals that a Muslim teammate prays before a Christian does and it must be done in the dressing room. Udoji says for Enyimba, “anyone who is ‘in the spirit’, either Christian or Muslim will pray’ and the team is good to go.
But does it work? Sometimes a team prays and still loses the game in question but notwithstanding, the ritual is never discarded. Moreover it is argued that there are various parameters of measuring the relative success of a game. Examining the outcome of the match mentioned at the start of this article, Warri Wolves put up an amazing display that day and were three minutes away from a memorable victory. Their hosts would score very late in the game to salvage a point. So how do we judge if the prayers were answered or not? Do we look at the dropped points late in the game and conclude, Nah, the prayers were not answered or do we focus on the point gained away from home that helped them to a respectable finish in the long run last season, sealing a continental place as the answer?
“I believe God always answers,” says Udoji. “The thing is that his answer may not come the way you want it. For instance, you may pray to win a game and you lose the game, it does not mean God did not answer you because you might win the next three games after that one. So instead of win- ning one and not winning the others, you lose one and win the rest. So if you look well, you see he actually answered”.
Akinbode echoes, “What we do is to commit ourselves to God because we believe in destiny. We also pray for protection on the pitch. In a minute anything can happen, so you commit yourself to God. Prayers can change destiny. So when we gather, we tell God we depend on Him and we accept his will for the match. He can make anything happen because with God all things are possible”.
FC Taraba captain Usman Mohammed goes deeper, “We are very religious in Nigeria. Praying before matches works. We place the match in His hands and ask Him to have His way. So it works”. With FC Taraba, sitting on top of the Premier League table this season, was it what the team prayed for, perhaps at the start of the season, are we seeing results of answered prayers before us? “Not really” was the honest answer. “We never set the target, we never prayed to be the first but we planned to do well and to make a statement. If we continue like this and the Premier League title comes, believe me, we will grab it”.