Friendly bets usually result in someone losing, perhaps, a six-pack of beer or a hundred dollars. Sometimes, the loser ends up washing the winner’s car or mowing his grass. A recent wager between two friends in Tanzania over the Manchester derby Saturday night took things in a completely different direction, with the loser giving up his wife to the winner, according to a Nairobi News report.
The two individuals, Amani Stanley and Tony Shilla, actually went so far as to concrete the wager on a handwritten and signed piece of paper. The agreement has rapidly gained interest on social media, and reads (translated), “I hereby promise to give away my wife for an entire week to my brother Tony Shilla if Manchester City doesn’t win the league title against Manchester United. I’m of sound mind and Ive [sic] not been coerced into this agreement.”
Shilla wrote his version on the same piece of paper, with both signing at the bottom. In the end, Man U took the victory, 3-2, and a defeated Stanley, for reasons unknown, was all too willing to live up to the agreement. There was no word on what his wife thought of the wager.
The Manchester derby is an annual soccer ritual that dates back to 1881. The contest pits Manchester United against Manchester City to see which is the better team. The record is fairly close, with Man U taking 73 victories to Man City’s 53, with 52 drawn matches.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time (and it certainly won’t be the last) that soccer has brought out the crazy in its fans. In 2013, two rivals in Uganda put it all on the line for a match between Arsenal and Man U. The Arsenal fan bet his house against his friend’s Toyota and his wife. When Man U took the win with a 1-0 victory, the loser’s house was stormed by a group of Man U fans, who kicked him, his three wives and his children out of the home.
In a story out of Russia from several years ago, a poker player allegedly used his wife to cover a bet. He lost, and his ex, in her own words, is now “happily married” to the winner of that game.
