A Testable Hypothesis

Economists have tested many hypotheses about the determinants of football matches - but this hypothesis has so far been neglected:

""It's impossible not to notice these trends. As soon as Yuschenko and Yanukovych appear at the stadium, one can expect misfortune. One should recollect the Ukraine-Greece match when our team lost their place [in the World Cup finals] in South Africa... Why? Because two 'lucky' politicians attended a decisive match and passed their lucky aura to the whole Ukrainian team," she said.

"Metalist Kharkiv is a brilliant team. The guys have played well for the whole year... This might have continued if their dear guests - [Regions Party leader] Viktor Fedorovych [Yanukovych] and [President] Viktor Andriyovych [Yuschenko] - had not once come to see them. The latter, I think, is also a very 'lucky' man. As a result, Metalist lost to Obolon," Tymoshenko said.

"Given this, I have a proposal. I want to ban the state's top-ranking officials and odious politicians from attending football matches, especially decisive ones. Let them stay at home and watch the matches on TV, especially alone, rather than together, and only recorded matches as live broadcasts are also dangerous. Perhaps, 'this' [misfortune] is transmitted via TV," she said.

http://www.interfax.com.ua/eng/main/27113