In 1998, the Republic of the Congo was going through hard times. In August, the Great African War began, one of the bloodiest in the history of the continent. At the same time, human lives were claimed not only by armed clashes, but also by natural phenomena.
The terrible news spread around the media then: 11 football players died during the match due to a lightning strike. The tragedy allegedly occurred in a meeting between the teams of the provinces of Basanga and Ben Tsadi. All players were reported dead.
Where did the witnesses go?
The information was not even questioned. The source was L'Avenir, a state-controlled Congolese newspaper in the capital. A short article said that 30 fans were also injured. However, none of the fans died.
According to the publication, not a single player of the hosts was injured. The note mentioned that spirits or sorcerers could be involved in the tragedy. This is where all the official facts ended. They believed in a fantastic story.
Only L'Avenir wrote about the deadly lightning. Of course, most of the local newspapers were busy with the war raging in the country. It is suspicious that such a terrible event passed by the rest.
According to the source, a famous singer came to the match, thanks to which a lot of people gathered at the stadium. But for 25 years, not a single spectator uttered a word about the tragedy, did not even make records on social networks.
French is spoken in the Congo. Searching for information in one of the world's most widely spoken languages also leads to a single source — L'Avenir. Some media, however, dug up «documentary» confirmation of the Congolese tragedy. Video of lightning strikes during a football match.
In the footage, several people fell to the lawn after a flash in the sky. A number of factors contradict the original story. First, the lightning didn't hit the field. Secondly, the players of both teams lay down. Thirdly, shortly after the outbreak, most of the players got up on their own. but in another country. On the recording of the match of the championship of South Africa, not a single player died.
Metal spikes
A few years ago, a forgotten story found a second life on social media. Readers all over the world wondered why the players of only one team died. They put forward two versions of what happened. None of the opposing team was around. Lightning had to hit exactly the crowd of celebrating. It does not sound too convincing: there was a lot of time left until the end of the match, and even the goalkeeper came running to celebrate the goal.
The second version indicated that the football players were killed by boots. Like, the guests had metal spikes, and the hosts had rubber ones. However, the mere fact of wearing a certain spike would not lead to the death of the entire cast.
«
"If the lightning was of this magnitude, then there was rain. So the players got wet. I do not think that the resistance of metal spikes was much different from rubber ones. Lightning could kill 11 people only if they stood close to each other and held hands. But again, only theoretically. Surely someone would have survived,” explained Nikolai Brandt, associate professor of the Moscow State University department.
The absence of other sources and a fantastic scenario with the death of an entire team due to one lightning that the story was made up by a Congolese newspaper. It is quite possible that it is based on real events and several players really suffered. However, 11 players from one club could not have died that evening, although all the world's media wrote about it.