Stress, fear, and heightened expectations around AFCON 2025 have fueled a surge in superstitious football predictions on social media, far removed from rational analysis. Behind this phenomenon lie stress, fear, and the normalization of irrational beliefs in the digital age. DR ‹ › This edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, currently being held in Morocco, is taking the internet by storm, with videos, posts, and shorts dedicated to predictions and prognostics. Not the kind offered by sports journalists or former football professionals during pre- or post-match analysis studios. Online, these predictions are anything but analytical, technical, or rational. A cat predicts the winning team by eating from one of two food bowls marked with the flags of the competing sides. A parrot picks the flag of the supposed winner. Others perform strange rituals, claiming they can read the future and reveal who will win. These videos rack up millions of views, likes, and shares, feeding the hopes of football fans desperate for reassurance ahead of a decisive match involving their national team. Atlas Lions supporters flood the comment sections of these videos, celebrating or expressing disappointment depending on the «prediction», as if these forecasts were established facts or messages sent from the future. Football, social media, and superstition: a strange equation, yet one that has drawn massive attention during this AFCON. Stress and fear drive superstitious football predictions To Moroccan psychosociologist Mohcine Benzakour, this is mere «superstitious thinking», and resorting to it «usually happens during moments of fear and weakness», the psychosociologist told Yabiladi. Analyzing the phenomenon, he explains that weakness manifests as stress and anxiety when people desperately want something to happen, such as winning this AFCON edition. Many supporters intensely long for Morocco to win this tournament as hosts, especially since the country has not lifted the trophy since the 1970s, he noted. «Combined with fan enthusiasm, intense media coverage, and the strong belief that this wish must become reality, these expectations generate fear and stress», Benzakour explains. Fear that the dream will not come true, and anxiety over what it would mean if Morocco were to lose, he added. These emotions, and people's inability to regulate them, «unconsciously translate into superstitious practices», Benzakour notes. He cited «drib l-fal» (fortune-telling or card divination), consulting a «chouwafa» (a traditional fortune teller), and other forms of prediction widely circulating online. «Is it really possible that a cat can predict a football match or decide who will win or lose?» he joked. What defines these practices, he stressed, is irrationality. «At the moment they engage in them, those who believe in such practices are operating at the lowest possible level of rational thinking», he said. This irrational dimension, he added, reinforces fear and anxiety, which in turn fuels superstition, as seen in the way people react to and consume this content online. Quoting French social psychologist Gustave Le Bon, Benzakour recalled that «crowd psychology is shaped more by emotions than by rational thought». Social media normalizing superstition? Another factor driving the spread of this content online is social media itself. Platforms, Benzakour argued, tend to normalize superstition, operating on the belief that «if everyone believes it, it becomes normal». «At this point, we are no longer talking about fear or anxiety, but about normalization, finding excuses to justify superstition», he said. New technologies, videos, and AI-generated content further reinforce this process by creating illusions people want to believe in, often without questioning their credibility, he explains. On another level, Benzakour acknowledged that many people promoting superstitious content online, football-related or otherwise, are not necessarily superstitious themselves. «They are driven by financial or personal motives: money, fame, visibility», he suggested. «They understand the context and exploit people's emotional investment in football to attract followers and generate engagement». However, the psychosociologist cautioned that major sporting events like AFCON do not create superstition; they merely provide an opportunity for it to surface. «Superstitious practices exist in many aspects of life, not just football», he stressed. According to him, people consume this content not because Morocco is hosting the tournament, but because superstition already exists. Finally, Benzakour insisted that passion for football alone does not lead to superstition. «If you look closely, you will often find that those who believe in such content rely on superstition in other areas of their lives as well—not just football», he concluded.
