A top-tier Chinese football team recently painted their whole stadium from their traditional color, blue, to bright gold, in order to change their luck. It may sound stupid, but they don’t care, because it actually worked!

Last month, after a dismal run that saw their team win a single home game in four months, the Guangzhou R&F football club made the desperate decision to repaint the whole stadium and surrounding facility gold, to improve their feng shui. The decision sounds even crazier if you consider that they had just renovated the stadium last year, painting the whole thing blue, to match their club colors. But the team had only won a single match on home turf since March 12, and they had run out of people and things to blame for their results, so, in desperation, management decided to follow the teachings of feng shui. They chose gold, because it apparently symbolizes completeness and fulfillment.

In mid July, everything, from the seats to the concrete and even the wall around the Guangzhou R&F were repainted gold, in hopes that their luck would finally change. And, believe it or not, it actually did, in a big way. The Guangzhou R&F football team has won its last four CSL home games since the gold makeover, scoring at least 4 goals per match, a feat that has catapulted the team, to third place in the Chinese Super League. They also beat their local rivals, the popular Guangzhou Evergrande, in a cup game.

The team didn’t even try to hide the fact that they believe changing the color of the stadium is responsible for their winning streak. Here’s what R&F coach Dragan Stojkovic wrote on the club’s official website: “After we changed the color of our home stadium, we got five wins and a high goal-scoring rate as well. The gold color of our home stadium is pretty nice, no need to change it now.”

Feng shui is really popular in China and other parts of Asia, with people relying on its teachings when building their homes and offices to maximize their luck and monetary gains.

via Taipei Times