Cabanga

I got a rather odd email today. It came from the Blackburn Rovers mailing list, to which I subscribe as a follower of the beautiful game and a fan of the team I have supported for the best part of fifty years. Usually, emails from the official Blackburn site give news of recent victories (would that that were always true) or details of players and their various injuries. It's all pretty predictable, harmless stuff.

Then, today, i got an email asking me to be a twelfth man for the England football team, which is preparing to do battle in the World Cup, in South Africa, in June. I'm familiar with the concept of the fan as the twelfth man. When the 100,000 rabid Aggies scream for the Texas A&M (American) football team at Kyle Field, their vociferous support encourages the players to knock that nasty team in burnt orange back to Austin, where they belong. It's all about making a lot of noise, especially when the opposing offense is on the field. In the same way, supporters can get behind their team in virtually any sport. After all, encouragement usually achieves more than the wagging finger of blame.

Back to the email: apparently, some bright spark in the English FA decided to ask suppporters to think positive thoughts about the team, on the theory that minds concentrated upon a single purpose are capable of making a difference. Here's part of the email:

We all want the boys to win in South Africa this summer, but most of us think we'll inevitably get knocked out at some point after the group stages. So if we really want to help them win (without strapping boots on ourselves) then we need to use the power of the 12th man.A Neuropsychologist has found that the power of the mind can actually influence results. Experiments show that this mental energy is strongest when unified under a single positive word. And if we all focus on this one word then doubt is less likely to creep in.That word is Cabanga (it means 'imagine' in Zulu if you're interested).We know with a greater number of believers, we can get more power and energy behind the word.With this in mind we're aiming to reach 90,000 fans (that's around the capacity of Wembley Stadium) on our facebook page, to help our boys win this summer.So show your support, be part of Cabanga and together we can help bring home the cup.

On the face of it, this is an extraordinary claim. By this theory, if 90,000 supporters think "goal" at the very moment that Wayne Rooney pulls back his leg to shoot, then they can influence the flight of the ball sufficiently to make it evade the despairing clutches of the opposition goalkeeper. The obvious question is, of course, what happens if 190,000 supporters of the opposing team are willing the ball to miss the goal? I'm not sure that this can be proven, either one way or the other. I still find it extraordinary that a thoroughly secular organisation, such as the FA, would countenance such a scheme.

My second thought is: What does this say about prayer? When the US and England teams meet in one of the opening games of the tournament, should I be praying that my team will win? (By the way, as an Englishman living in the US, that's a game I cannot lose). Will God listen to my prayers, and the prayers of those who are asking exactly the opposite, before deciding who will win? Or, should prayer be reserved for rather more important matters? I know that God is interested in the details of my life, but I don't think I can claim Him as partisan in sport. Unless, of course, He is a Blackburn supporter...