See Sports Fan Use Snakes to Cheer on His Team… Yes, Snakes!

Snakes on a plane? Terrifying. Snakes at a game? It’s intimidating! Recently, a man in Libya decided that he was going to intimidate the competition during a sports game, and what he did was absolutely wild. Check it out below.

Snakes at a Game – Terrifying the Competition

On August 15th, a sports fan in Libya decided that he wanted to support his team in maybe the most unique way possible – with snakes! The event happened at the al-Murooj sports club during a basketball game, but the man who brought the snakes? The president of the fan club, of course, al-Salheen Boumkhtada!

Boumkhtada has been a fan of the club for a while and recently wanted to showcase his pride by doing something a little extra. When the basketball team was playing an especially challenging opponent, Boumkhtada decided to pull an old trick out of the hat: the ol’ snake in a bag. Shockingly, this wasn’t the first time that Boumkhtada had brought snakes to a game, no, it was a scare tactic Boumkhtada started over 30 years ago.

The first time was in 1987, when al-Murooj’s football (soccer) team had moved up to the first division, and he decided that he wanted a way to intimidate the players on the other team. From then on, he made snakes a regular part of the big games, repeating the feat in 1988 and 1992.

“We (once) took the snakes to Benghazi. This was a match against al-Hilal Club. I had a bag, which I emptied out in front of the players. That game ended in a draw, thank God.”

Boumkhtada – AP

Capturing Deadly Snakes

The snakes that Boumkhtada has been bringing to the sports club aren’t just any old snakes. For the passionate man, it’s go big or go home. In order to properly “intimidate” his opponents, he only brings out the scariest snakes out there: cobras.

Cobras are a somewhat common snake in the region where Boumkhtada lives, and he has perfected the art of finding and “taming” them, at least as far as a snake can be tamed. Catching these snakes is an extremely dangerous process, however, and Boumkhtada doesn’t take it lightly. The venom of a cobra contains toxins that can affect the nervous system, the blood vessels, the muscles, and the tissues. Some cobras can also spit their venom into the eyes, causing blindness, although these species only live in certain areas. Within minutes, a cobra bite can result in respiratory arrest, cardiac failure, paralysis, pain, hemorrhaging, and tissue necrosis. Overall, it’s a really bad time.

In fact, Boumkhtada was once bitten by a cobra in 1986. He ended up being admitted to the hospital for three days in the intensive care unit, fighting for his life. Even more, his little brother has been bitten in the past and also needed intensive care. There are a lot of sayings about how die-hard some sports club fans are, but it’s pretty hard to top Boumkhtada’s dedication!

Dangerous or Defanged?

Nowadays, Boumkhtada doesn’t take the same risks as he used to. He’s actually incorporated snakes into his regular life and has them living all over his home. While this sounds terrifying, he’s actually taken precautions to ensure that he doesn’t get hurt. After the dangerous work of catching a wild cobra, he then will defang them, essentially taking away their ability to cause him deadly harm.

The process of defanging them is partially why there isn’t more of an uproar when he takes a handful of cobras to a game. The home team knows they aren’t dangerous, but they don’t have to tell the challengers that!

In fact, the snakes are more than tolerated at al-Murooj; they are celebrated. One fan said:

“Since this started, the snake has became part of the club’s slogan. People sing about it, saying: ‘The snakes, al-Murooj and the fans are making waves.'”

Musa al-Hassi – AP

The World’s Best Fan-Club President

People love the snakes and the effect that it has on the crowd. They provide a rallying point for the fans and an opportunity to seriously scare the opposing team. For Boumkhtada, snakes aren’t just something fun; they are a way of life. It only made sense as the head of the fan club to incorporate them somehow.

The snakes don’t look like they are leaving the field anytime soon, with even the director of the cultural forum for the al-Morouj Club, Rafi Amaiti, singing Boumkhtada’s praises:

“It is a great choice (to have Boumkhtada head the fan association) because this man is the owner of these snakes that accompany al-Murooj fans to scare everyone (the competition).”

Rafi Amaiti – AP

Hopefully, Boumkhtada’s tactics don’t catch on anywhere else in the world!

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Dr. Meet Poddar/Shutterstock.com