The World Is a Ball: Departure from Death, controversial record of World War II, turns 80

Exactly 80 years ago, on August 9, 1942, there was a football game that became famous as the “Death Match”.

It was held at the Zenit stadium in Kiev, the current capital of Ukraine, formerly a city of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), occupied by Adolf Hitler’s German Army in World War II.

This match pitted player-prisoners of the team called FC Start, who previously defended two of the best local teams, Dynamo and Lokomotiv, against the German soldiers of Flakelf.

Three days earlier, the two had faced each other, with the Soviets winning by a humiliating 5-1 score.

The Germans were left to propose – in fact, to impose – a revenge, in order to get revenge in front of a people they considered, according to Nazi precepts, inferior.

The atmosphere for this game was very heavy. There was a massive presence of troops from the invaders and a charge for tickets, with the number of spectators being around 2,000.

A good connoisseur would quickly get the message (“lose or suffer the consequences”, euphemism for “lose or die”), but Soviet footballers, dressed in red (a color related to communism), decided they would not give up.

The “friendly” referee, a German official, allowed some very truculent, even violent, plays from Flakelf, with Start goalkeeper Trusevich being hit on the head.

In this extremely rough scenario, the greater skill and technique of the Soviets, however, was enough for them to open a 3-1 lead in the first half.

And, even having received an intimidating visit from an Axis soldier at half-time (then 3-1 for the Soviets), Start remained firm in its intention to win the match. Two more goals came out for each side, and Start actually won, 5-3.

Immediately, right after the game, nothing happened, and the team’s players continued to work where they already acted as prisoners, in a bakery.

However, after nine days, at least eight members of Start were arrested and later taken to a concentration camp, accused of being part of the USSR spy network, in order to obtain information that would expose German forces.

Four of them, Trusevich, Korotkikh, Kuzmenko and Klimenko, died under torture or execution.

This is the version propagated over time by the Soviet regime. There are, however, some reports that point to controversies in the famous match.

Text published on the website War History Online states that one of the members of Start, Honcharenko, was instructed by the authorities of the USSR to say that the Gestapo (German police) threatened the players with death if they did not lose the game, and that this fact would not have happened. .

The same article states that, in 1992, after the implosion of the Soviet State, witnesses to the match declared that there was no massive presence of German soldiers in the stadium and that the red uniform was given to the Start athletes by the Flakelf athletes, that is, there was no premeditated act of subversion.

Other reports made by the independent Ukrainian media have cast doubt on points that were previously considered certain: 1) the referee was not a German official and 2) the game would have passed without violence and without clear favoritism from the referee.

What is certain is that Start players had their lives taken in the period after the Death Match, murdered by the Germans.

Whether or not the reason for these deaths is directly related to the outcome of the football game, which caused discomfort and nonconformity in the losers, will be up to the conclusion of each one, according to the interpretation of the narratives.

The suspicion exists, will always exist, that the homicidal actions were motivated by revenge.

But after eight decades, with the characters directly involved dead, confirmation will not exist.