A former secretary-general of Tanzania's Football Federation has claimed that money earmarked for the country's failed World Cup campaign was used to hire witchdoctors.
Mwina Kaduguda, who was in office when Tanzania lost 3-0 to Kenya in the preliminary round of the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, said the federation failed to pay the team's match allowances in order to bring a witchdoctor to Nairobi.
"Players were not paid their allowances before the game, which cost us the chance of reaching the group stage," Kaduguda told BBC Sport yesterday.
"I was in Kenya with the team, where I ordered my colleagues to go back home and get money to pay the players. But instead of coming with the money, they came with a witchdoctor.
"Our team was well prepared and was far better than Kenya but the disgruntled players did not put up a serious fight," he said Each player had been entitled to a payment of US$140.
Kaduguda, who was the secretary general between September 2003 and February 2004, made the revelations on a radio talk show on yesterday.
He was defending his committee's achievements during their short term in office.
Claims of witchcraft have provoked a lot of controversy in the Tanzanian game.
The country's top two teams, Simba and Yanga, were penalised by the federation last year, after they were found guilty of performing strange rituals during a league match.
Africa's football governing body CAF also sent a warning letter to the Tanzanian federation last year. This followed a compliant by Egypt's Ismaili, who claimed Simba's players and officials had acted inappropriately during their Champions League match in Dar es Salaam.