Football and superstitious behavior: regarding the World Cup

Football (or soccer, in the United States) is one of the most popular sports in the world. In Brazil, it is an important symbol of the playful aspect of national popular culture. It is a typical aspect of football the unpredictability of the outcome, comparative to other collective sports. With such characteristics, it can be reasoned as a favourable context to bring forth superstitious behaviour. It was attempted to verify if, even in a context as professional as the World Cup being held in the country, superstitions would manifest, and with which characteristics. The source of information considered was the news about the competition. Superstitious manifestations were a frequent subject of the journalistic pieces and were classified into three main modes: 1) mentions to the coincidence between a fact occurred in a former championship and a current fact, as a sign of good or bad luck; 2) the use of strategy or charm by the team supporters to bring luck to their national teams or bad luck to the adversaries; 3) practices of players or teams to bring good luck or avoid misfortune. The coexistence of professionalism and technical preparation with superstitions was object of discussion.