According to allegations in Portugal, Porto is paying a witch doctor to help them win the Portuguese league title, four years after rivals Benfica were suspected of doing the same. Madalena Aroso was allegedly employed as a club employee by club president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa five months ago, officially as a ‘doctor.’
Paying a Witch Doctor
As per the Abola, Aroso is paid £13,000 each month by the Portuguese giants, which works out to more than £150,000 per year. The allegations have aroused great outrage among fans, as the witch doctor would be the club’s highest-paid employee by a long shot, despite the club’s efforts to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.
Aroso, who is said to be a “clairvoyant” who can see into the future and anticipate match outcomes, was supposedly signed this summer to assist Porto to recapture the Primeira Liga title from Sporting Lisbon, who had won it the previous season.
With 14 of 34 matches played, Sergio Conceicao’s side leads the league, narrowly ahead of Sporting on goal differential and four points ahead of Benfica.
Witchcraft in 2017
In 2017, Porto’s communications director Francisco J. Marques accused then-Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira of utilizing witchcraft to help them win the league. Vieira has since resigned following his arrest for tax fraud. Vieira allegedly paid £65,000 to Dr Armando Nhaga, the ‘National Police Commissioner of Guinea-Bissau,’ according to Marques.
Marques said: ‘What are you creating an octopus for? Creating this monster that allows everything to Benfica and nothing to others, and for witchcraft?… I can say this is the biggest scandal in Portuguese football to come.’
That season, Benfica won both the Primeira Liga and the Portuguese Cup, but there is no proof that the two are related. Delane Vieira is said to have unleashed two frogs into a Vienna stadium in 1987 to help Porto win the Champions League (then known as the European Cup).
There are also rumours that a ‘Fafe Witcher’ was paid by Benfica fans to help them win the title – he reportedly claimed he was paid £170,000 after the team won the Primeira Liga.
