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wEIRD nEWS hEADLINES
November 7, 2001 (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) - A struggling English soccer team has turned to religion for salvation by asking a bishop to carry out an exorcism at the club's ground.
The Right Reverend Richard Harries, the bishop of Oxford, performed a special blessing at Oxford United's new Kassam Stadium to remove evil spirits in the hope of improving the team's dismal performance.
Gypsies who had lived on the site until they were moved to make way for the 15 million pound ($22 million) stadium, were rumored to have put a curse on the ground.
Harries told the BBC he did not perform a formal exorcism as such, although he did sprinkle blessed water on the ground and ask God to banish evil from the ground.
``We don't actually call it exorcism these days, we call it the ministry of deliverance from evil.
``It was a serious prayer for God to bless the ground, including that (it) might be freed from evil. If any evil of any kind is around, obviously we are praying that it no longer be there.''
Oxford, who are in the third division of the English league, moved to the ground at the start of the season but have suffered a diabolical time since then, winning just four games, leaving the team 19th in the table.
Since the bishop's intervention last Friday, the team's fortunes have started to improve, with a 2-2 draw at home against York City.
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