Uri Geller claims he will use his ‘powers’ to help Scotland beat England and make amends for Euro 96

If you are old enough to remember, you might recall a brief period in the mid-90s where the Israeli-British illusionist Uri Geller was obsessed with football.

The height of this culminated at Euro 96 when Geller decided to support England and claimed to have slightly moved the ball before Scotland’s Gary McAllister missed a penalty against the Three Lions.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly on Thursday, Geller claimed that he was inundated with “hate messages” after that match 25 years ago and is hoping to make amends by pledging his allegiances to Scotland and use his magic to help the Tartan Army win at Wembley.

On the ITV morning show, the 74-year-old said: “With all this, I will be holding my Scottish shirt which I got from some very powerful people in Scotland, so I will be sending my powers - I have to!

“Do you know Lorraine, when I moved that ball away from Gary McAllister’s foot, I received 11,000 hate letters so I didn’t know what to do, so I went down to Scotland and bought a Scottish Island.

“I’m going to unleash my powers - you all know what I’ve done in the past - so Scottish fans if you can hear me, you link up with me, you feel my energy, and let’s pray that you will win tomorrow.”

A rather confused Kelly - who is Scottish - ended the segment by saying: “We will take all the help we can get! That was... different, wasn’t it?”

Geller also claimed he would be summoning the ‘spirit of Robert the Bruce’ in a rather well photoshopped Twitter post.

Geller, who owns Lamb Island in Scotland, is quoted by the Daily Star as saying: “I have a gut feeling that intuitively I feel that I should help them out this time.

“It’s everything - guilt and [the fact that] interfering with football tangibly is a no-no. England won and it’s now about survival for Scotland because they lost to the Czechs so if they don’t win they’re probably out. I’ll do everything in my ability, my capacity to help them win.”

Scotland lost their first Euro 2020 match 2-0 to the Czech Republic last Monday while England beat Croatia 1-0 in their opening game - meaning that there is a lot riding on Friday night’s game. The is the Scottish men’s team first appearance at a major tournament since 1998.