‘Greatest match never seen’ is the most chaotic game in football history
There were huge queues to get tickets for the clash between Arsenal and Dynamo Moscow (Picture: William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images)
As one of the first international club clashes following the end of World War Two, it’s no wonder that tens of thousands of football fans started queuing at midnight to bag the best seats.
The only drawback" The fog was so thick that they couldn’t see the action – and neither could the referee.
The 1945 match between Arsenal and Russian team Dynamo Moscow has been described as one of the greatest games ‘never seen’.
Calls to postpone the game were waved away due to the huge turnout and the chaos that ensued has gone down in history, with the cover of fog resulting in both teams using underhand tactics that involved punches being thrown, extra players on the pitch and spectators joining in.
The Second World War had ended just months before. Britain and the USSR had fought alongside each other, but tensions between the countries were beginning to grow as news of the Soviet atomic bomb project emerged.
Keen to foster good relations, the Russian Embassy in London encouraged the British government and the Football Association to invite Dynamo Moscow, the league champions in the Soviet Union, to tour the UK. The club was owned by Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Secret Soviet Police.
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source:
metro-arsenal
URL source:
http://metro.co.uk/tag/arsenal-fc/
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