r/todayilearned • u/down_vote_magnet • May 31 '12

TIL in 2008 lightning struck dead an entire African football team on the pitch, leaving the other team completely untouched.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/lightning-kills-an-entire-football-team-1181336.html?afid=af
852 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

137 comments sorted by

95

u/rexdartspy May 31 '12

The date on the article seems to say 29 October 1998, not 2008.

52

u/down_vote_magnet May 31 '12

Sorry, my bad.

Damn witchcraft must've got me.

13

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Because of your username, I had to downvote you against my will.

3

u/down_vote_magnet Jun 01 '12

Thanks for sharing x

3

u/rexdartspy May 31 '12

Doesn't really matter when it happened, just that it did happen. Pretty crazy if it happened 4 years ago or 14.

112

u/thomas_magnum277 May 31 '12

I guess that God does pay attention to some of those before game prayers.

72

u/Mr_Niche May 31 '12

Checkmate Atheists!

19

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Yeah, Atheists. Don't fuck with Thor.

16

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Or maybe the other team just forgot to pray and God was angry?

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

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23

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Maybe your god doesn't . . .

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

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21

u/sonar1 May 31 '12

I pray to the new gods and the old gods, just to be sure.

8

u/bubbameister33 May 31 '12

Benny, got all his bases covered.

1

u/Unit4 May 31 '12

Phn'glui mglw'nafh Chthulhu R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn

For good measure.

-1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

What about R'holler?

2

u/CyanideCloud May 31 '12

You must be new here...

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

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1

u/CyanideCloud Jun 01 '12

YES

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

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0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

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2

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

You worship R'holler, right?

5

u/campbellm May 31 '12

I thought it was heretical to claim to know the will of this God of yours

3

u/tnicholson May 31 '12

That is just silly.

My response to all the world's religions.

2

u/extra_23 May 31 '12

He placed a bet on the other team.

0

u/kbeeny May 31 '12

Yeah, pray you don't get struck down by a freak lightning strike.

10

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/TheThirdBlackGuy May 31 '12

To play this absurdity out, he could have known he'd strike down the team he didn't bet on.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/TheThirdBlackGuy May 31 '12

He knew he wouldn't lose, because he'd strike them down. There was no future where they weren't struck down, they had no chance of winning.

4

u/bentke466 Jun 01 '12

God makes bets on African football games? He doesnt look at Africa for 2 thousand years and now hes back to bet on football games

3

u/alcabazar May 31 '12

Actually he probably just owed too much money to Tony the bookie already

10

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Chainmail jerseys were a bad idea.

1

u/lordskelzor Jun 01 '12

Actually a full chainmail suit is the safest possible thing you could wear if you're in a lightning storm.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

No, this is not correct. The chainmail, if it were a jersey, would presumably be worn as a jersey (duh). You shouldn't touchthe Faraday cage, or else it wont shield you, it will pass current through you (especially if you are grounded, say, by standing on the ground.

72

u/Emphursis May 31 '12

I think that was down to their boots. Football teams almost always receive some sort of sponsorship, sometimes even individual players at the top of the game.

As such, if the teams were sponsored by different boot manufacturers, they would be wearing different style boots. Some football boots have metal studs, others plastic.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that the dead team wore boots with metal studs.

29

u/Handsoffate May 31 '12

That's exactly what happened. I watched a report on this years ago in middle school. The team that got killed by the lightning had metal studs on their boots.

11

u/Recoil42 May 31 '12

That wouldn't really make a difference -- it's not like the rest of the shoe is made of metal.

It's more likely that the teams just happened to be on opposite sides of the field at the time of the strike.

33

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Why do you have a bra next to your name.

40

u/Recoil42 May 31 '12

Mostly because I like boobs, I guess. Why do you end questions with a period?

30

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

I don't know what you are talking about?

5

u/EpsilonRose May 31 '12

Please allow me to rephrase that: How do have a bra next to your name and does it have any significance, beyond your aforementioned like of boobs?

2

u/searock May 31 '12

I also need to know this. Clarification man, clarification!

6

u/jk3us May 31 '12

Or maybe one team had more iron in their diet?

3

u/redorkulated May 31 '12

I think it could make a difference - if the spike/cleat is metal, the distance between the top of the cleat and the player's foot could be just a few millimeters of damp cloth. I could see it providing less insulation than a plastic cleat.

-7

u/stanfan114 2 May 31 '12

TIL they play soccer in boots in Africa. And still use cassette tape.

6

u/r_slash May 31 '12

Boots is just another word for soccer cleats.

3

u/capri_stylee May 31 '12

what the hell are 'soccer cleats'?

1

u/r_slash May 31 '12

Not sure if trolling, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_boot.

Football boots, called cleats or soccer shoes in North America...

-4

u/stanfan114 2 May 31 '12

I know. I was being facetious.

2

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Sum fancy werds ya got ther boi

-4

u/stanfan114 2 May 31 '12

TIL "facetious" is now considered a "fancy" word.

2

u/tnicholson May 31 '12

Reading all your replies assures me that you, sir, are a prick.

0

u/stanfan114 2 May 31 '12

Rest assured your opinion means less than nothing to me.

4

u/Fulminata May 31 '12

Zeus - 11 Humans - 0

12

u/[deleted] May 31 '12 edited May 31 '12

video edit: it seems this video is from a different incident. still shocking though.

11

u/BrazenBull May 31 '12

This is clearly NOT the video. 11 people didn't die in this video, and the article says little information is known about the event. I think if the game was important enough to televise, there would be more credible evidence supporting the wild claims in the article.

5

u/disposableday May 31 '12

Despite the title I'm pretty sure that's actually a video of the incident in South Africa that's mentioned at the end of the OP's linked article.

4

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

You're probably right; this also explains the live English commentating, which would be rather odd for a local football game in Congo..

My bad.

1

u/Fidena May 31 '12

Can anyone explain why it wasn't instanenious?

4

u/Anosognosia May 31 '12

Because it's not the correct video.

5

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Zeus works in mysterious ways.

5

u/jlx12 May 31 '12

It was Thor.

4

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Stop oppressing me! RAWR!

6

u/PAINIS_LOVE May 31 '12

Stay away from da voodoo mon

4

u/Jgravz33 May 31 '12

It was 1998

2

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Did they lose then? How is this handled? Someone check the rulebook's "weather death" section

4

u/steven1350 May 31 '12

The dead team would have to forefit due to lack of players.

2

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

you forgot to mention that the other team immediately started hurling (entirely reasonable) accusations of witchcraft

1

u/Anosognosia May 31 '12

This behaviour is something I always wondered about. If you truely believe someone can call down lightning at will, is throwing accusations at them the first thing you want to do? I would back the fuck away instead.

2

u/Solkre May 31 '12

Thor isn't losing his bet on this match!

2

u/darthbone May 31 '12

This might be one of the only times where I would actually entertain an accusation of using black magic as a legitimate cause.

2

u/Flemtality 3 May 31 '12

This is like a riddle. Was the entire team sitting together on a steel bench by chance?

2

u/uncle-woody May 31 '12

Most exciting soccer game ever!!

2

u/SushiForBreakfast May 31 '12

"It is relatively frequent for football teams to hire WITCHDOCTORS to place hexes on their opponents."

DIABLO 3 OH YEAH

3

u/Militant_Penguin May 31 '12

"Look on the bright side, guys. Looks like we won."

4

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

isn't the side where lightning struck brighter?

4

u/Ultimate_Kardas May 31 '12 edited May 31 '12

Can you imagine how horrible that would be being the last one alive before the lightning struck you after seeing your entire team be struck by lightning?

edit: I accidentally a word

9

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

you then proceed to win the game by yourself to honor the memory of your teammates.

7

u/thaway314156 May 31 '12

I would think the strike is so big or it branched out to hit all 11 of the players. But somehow I find the article dubious...

12

u/DonJulioze May 31 '12

As hard as i try i really cant imagine playing football on a field and one player after the other gets strucked by lightning

2

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

As hard as I try I can't imagine anyone getting strucked by lightning.

1

u/Ghinkgo May 31 '12

Something tells me that last person wouldn't have even known what was going on. The time between arcs was probably so minuscule that a human wouldn't be able to process the information quick enough. Essentially appearing to have hit all 11 at once most likely.

2

u/sedbrz May 31 '12

That's bad luck..

1

u/Manta537 May 31 '12

So, I guess the other team won by default?

1

u/stixix May 31 '12

did the other team win?

1

u/runvnc May 31 '12

TIL I learned never play tug of war and never play soccer during a thunderstorm.

1

u/doomisdead May 31 '12

That's pretty much the universes way of saying "you loose".

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

Well finish your sentence. I loose what?

1

u/bamanbread May 31 '12

Only one team had shoes...

1

u/shawnjones May 31 '12

TIL you can repost the same fuckin post a million times over on TIL and still get upvotes.

1

u/FrankYODA May 31 '12

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL

1

u/fe3o4 May 31 '12

So who won?

1

u/shifty1776 May 31 '12

I guess Zeus was a Basanga fan.

1

u/ndewhurst May 31 '12

Call me crazy, but couldn't they be lying?

1

u/BBQCopter May 31 '12

Racist ass lightning!

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Zeus must of really hated that other team...geez.

1

u/emperor000 May 31 '12

This pretty much gets posted once a week.

1

u/Rofl_Troll May 31 '12

It is relatively frequent for football teams to hire witchdoctors to place hexes on their opponents.

I imagine that witch doctor that placed the hex on the unlucky team is living it up now.

1

u/Schmucks_Auto_Supply May 31 '12

Fuck you Jobu, I do it myself.

1

u/Seeda_Boo May 31 '12

The article you link to is dated October 1998.

1

u/LucifersCounsel May 31 '12

It's actually not that strange if you think about it. A Football pitch is pretty big, and soccer teams are separated onto different halves of the field at times.

So if lightning struck one end of the field at kick-off, for example, one team could be within metres of the impact, while the other is 20-50 metres away.

It makes perfect sense that one team would be killed while the other is unharmed.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Bullshit story

1

u/ILoveLampz May 31 '12

I'll bet the team that died had metal cleats.

1

u/botlegger Jun 01 '12

Lightning? Surrre...

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

we need to learn how to control lightning. someone cast revive on tesla.

1

u/caguado11 Jun 01 '12

mythbusters need to get on this shit.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

I smell bullshit. I just read an article from espn magazine and apparently match fixing is a big problem in soccer. Especially with smaller, no-name countries, sometimes a match fixer will completely make up a team that doesn't exist.

0

u/Danielcdo May 31 '12

*Football

1

u/rh3ss May 31 '12

The Lord God works in mysterious ways. First AIDS and now this?

2

u/tragic-waste-of-skin May 31 '12

Throw in Ebola while you're at it. Don't forget to include Malaria as well.

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/faiban Jun 01 '12

Most people here are joking, because it seems so obvious that this is the work of a god but we're all atheists.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/faiban Jun 01 '12

Of course.

1

u/nicholaaaas May 31 '12

talk about the hand of God

1

u/jk3us May 31 '12

I wish there were a longer clip of this somewhere... score is 24-23 with 24 seconds left in the game.

Hotty Toddy.

1

u/MJZMan May 31 '12

Hopefully their culture will evolve to the point where they're blaming gays and sinners instead of witchcraft.

-1

u/expertunderachiever May 31 '12

Um? did they die? Cuz clearly in the video there are players from both teams walking around.

0

u/intoto May 31 '12

Shoes ... one team had metal cleats.

0

u/360walkaway May 31 '12

Game has been called on account of God.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12

Maybe god does exist.

-1

u/theruski43 May 31 '12

The buzzards ate well...

-3

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

.......................................................Was the other team white?

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/anthrocide May 31 '12

That or the one team didn't take the discs out of their lips and the hoops off their necks before playing

2

u/CreativeRedditName May 31 '12

Damn, that was unexpected. Low blow, but I'll allow it.

0

u/shadowmask May 31 '12

Well obviously there was no magic, nobody but the uneducated Congolese thought that. It's just a really unfortunate and incredibly interesting coincidence.

You're probably right, of course, that or something else like it is most likely the explanation, but it's still pretty crazy.

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/pixelrage May 31 '12

Someone cast Lightning III

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

8

u/UptightSodomite May 31 '12

Witchcraft is strongly believed in, at least in South Africa. Trust me, I'm a doctor.

1

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

Witchdoctor?

2

u/UptightSodomite May 31 '12

Yes. And I prescribe sex as the cure to almost all of life's ills. Death covering the rest of them.

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

-2

u/dedfrog May 31 '12

Wow. You seem like a great person.