Dictators don’t like to lose face under any circumstances,
but unlike Adolf Hitler (who couldn’t stand the uncertainty of the game) and
Josef Stalin (who once described footballers as “a pathetic collection of
spineless creatures”) a raft of political despots have targeted football in
order to mobilise their people.
Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly’s comment: “Football is never a matter of
life and death, it’s much more important than that”, may have been tongue in
cheek, but over the course of the last 100 years, his statement has a
distinctly uneasy ring of truth about it. Maxim recounts the stories of 7
footballers who plied their trade under Big Brother’s beady eye. Not all
survived to tell the tale...
NORTH KOREA
Renowned for his interest in vintage wines, fast cars, and
amassing a huge arsenal of WMDs, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is also keen
for his country to match near neighbours South Korea and Japan and actually
qualify for a World Cup Finals. Hardly known for his subtlety (he thought
nothing of nuclear testing less than 200 miles from the Japanese border) he
professed to being “exasperated” by the North Korean side. In 1994, when the
North narrowly missed out on qualification for the Finals in the USA, he
publically lambasted the team, describing them as “weaklings who somehow
snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” and announced his punishment for the
side. Midfielder Ha Jung Wong takes up the story: “He told us that due to our
ineptitude, we’d spend the next three months working in a chicken plucking
factory. We couldn’t believe it, but he told us that it would help us “realise
what a privileged lifestyle we had as footballers.” Every day, we did a twelve
hour shift, and plucked chickens all day with just a thirty minute break. Ha
Jung Wong has since fled the country in protest, but with Kim Jong Il currently
spitting feathers about his side languishing fourth in their 2010 qualifying
group (South Korea are top) he is unlikely to see his side on the biggest stage
of all any time soon, so hapless North Korean footballers may not have seen the
last of those extended chicken plucking vacations.
UGANDA
In modern day Uganda, the mere mention of Idi Amin’s name
induces fear in both the young and old. Those involved in sport have distinctly
mixed memories of the long since deposed despot, who was estimated to have
arranged the deaths of around 500,000 Ugandans during his reign of terror. Amin
poured money into sports, believing this was the most effective way his country
would become known throughout the world. In 1978, the Ugandan football team –
nicknamed the Cranes – reached the African Cup of Nations, but an almost
catastrophic breakdown in communications between Amin and his sporting
“officer” Major Nasur Abdalla almost resulted in the deaths of 2 Cranes stars.
John Ntensibe and Mike Kiganda, who played for Express FC, and were accused by
Abdalla of having links with Tanzanian based opposition exiles, who were trying
to depose Amin. Along with fifty fans, and the Club’s best known cheer lady,
Mama Baker Kazibwe, the pair were arrested and detained at the infamous
Makindye military barracks. Ntensibe takes up the story: “Many of the fans were
tortured by Amin’s men in the most grotesque manner, and many never came out
alive. After two weeks, his men grinned at us and said: ‘”Your turn comes
tomorrow.’” At dawn the following morning, the doors to our cells opened, and
in marched the soldiers. I said my prayers, but instead, we were greeted with a
full breakfast and flowers. It turned out that Amin had met with our national
manager before a game against Zambia, and asked where we were. We were
released, because he needed us for the match. I later heard that some of the
soldiers who arrested us were killed instead,” recalls Ntensibe, who also
explained that new recruits to the national side were forced to chant “Down
with Amin” to test their courage upon joining the ranks.
ZAIRE
“President Mobutu’s eyes,” recalls Zaire’s 1974 World Cup
defender Ilunga Mwepu, “were everywhere.” Initially, the African chief treated
sub Saharan Africa’s first qualifiers for the World Cup “as he would his own
sons, but things soon went wrong” explains the ex fullback. “The celebrations
in Zaire after we qualified for the World Cup were unbelievable, and he Mobutu
promised us a brand new car, a new house, and ,000 each after we got back
from the Finals. To be offered wealth like that was unheard of in my country.
But the mood quickly worsened, when we found out that the guards were pocketing
the money instead. We were told before the Brazil game by his men (we’d lost
2-0 to Scotland and 9-0 to Yugoslavia) that if we lost by more than 3 goals,
we’d never be allowed back home. So when Rivelino – who had the hardest shot in
football – prepared to take a free kick late on when we were already 2-0 down,
I panicked and kicked the ball away before he’d taken it. Most of the Brazil
players, and the crowd too, thought it was hilarious. I shouted “You bastards”
at them, because they didn’t understand the pressure we were under. When we
arrived home, our contracts were torn up, and potential coaching roles never
materialised. Many of the team, including me, live like tramps now.”
HAITI
Haiti’s unexpected qualification for the 1974 World Cup
Finals may have sparked jubilation across the island, but it also attracted the
attention of Haiti’s despotic ruler “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Prior to the
tournament, Duvalier, who spent millions of dollars on luxury residences and
vintage cars whilst the vast majority of Haiti’s populace lived in extreme
poverty, had acted as a friend to star striker Ernest Sanon, but when the
team’s form dipped, the pressure intensified.” Sanon recalled: “We all felt the
pressure in training, and my form dipped. I felt our boss, Jean Tessy, get more
and more agitated. After one session, he pulled out a pistol and fired some
shots into the ceiling, and bits of plaster were going everywhere. “This is
what will happen to us if you don’t start playing properly,” he yelled. We all
thought he’d gone mad, but there were clear reasons for his outrageous
behaviour. Tessy had learned of the fate of Haitian born Joe Gaetjens, who’d
scored the USA’s shock winner against England in 1950. His brothers were known
opponents of the Duvaliers, and the dreaded Secret Police, the Tons Tons
Macoutes, imprisoned him in the dreaded Fort Dimanche jail, and later killed
him. “I only found out later about this, and Gaetjens was our most high profile
player, and Baby Doc told Tessy that a similar fate would befall him if things
didn’t turn out well at the World Cup. Haiti gained credit for taking the lead
against Italy (they eventually lost 3-1) before things went disastrously wrong.
Sanon recalls: “Ernts Jean Joseph tested positive for a banned substance, and
in full view of the world’s press, was dragged onto the team’s coach, beaten
unconscious, and flown back to Haiti. Joseph was banned from football for four
years, returning to the game for the 78 World Cup Qualifiers (Joseph still
refuses to discuss what happened to him during that time) and now coaches on
the island. The team’s form collapsed after Joseph was sent home, and the team
lost 7-0 to Poland and 4-1 to Yugoslavia. “Many players never returned to the
island for a long time after that,” explained Sanon. “They were fearful of what
Duvalier would do to them.”
IRAQ
“There was a huge whirring of helicopter blades,” recalls
former Iraq skipper Habib Jaffar, “and suddenly, out jumped Uday Hussein
(Saddam’s son), puffing surrounded by ten bodyguards, puffing away on a huge
Havana cigar, and dressed in an Italian suit. He motioned for all of us to
gather around him, and he snarled: “If you dare to lose this fucking match
(against Oman in an Olympic qualifier), I’ll see to it that your legs are
broken, and that your families suffer. We were terrified, and went in at half
time 2-0 down. Then his voice came over the intercom in the dressing room, and
he screeched: “Get moving you fucking dogs, otherwise you’ll never kick a ball
again.” We lost 3-0. A week later, we received a letter from the Iraqi Sports
Ministry (Uday was President) requesting that we meet him at the headquarters.
He warned me that as captain, it was my duty to ensure that such a disaster
never befell Iraq again, and as a reminder of this, he had a little “adventure”
planned for me. I was taken to a camp outside Baghdad, and guards thrashed the
soles of my feet, and made me jump into a vat of raw sewerage when the skin had
been flayed off. Each time they thrashed me, the men shouted: “For the honour
of Saddam Hussein.”’ For years afterwards, Iraqi players were taunted in
matches. During a fiery encounter with deadly rivals Iran, Jaffar was showered
with bullets as he prepared to take a corner, and Iran fans taunted him with
what would happen if Iraq lost the match. Ironically, Jaffar received a note of
thanks from Uday after the team recovered to win 2-1. Others suffered at Uday’s
hands, including former Iraq star Raham Zair, who later fled to Europe having
being thrashed with an electric cable and being forced to kick a concrete ball.
All for being sent off against Kazakhstan 2 years before. Uday was killed in a
gun fight with American soldiers in 2003, and Habib Jaffar is grateful “that
modern Iraqi player can perform without such terrors hanging over them.”
ARGENTINA
Based in Buenos Aries throughout the1978 World Cup Finals, Juan Peroto likens the far right Argentine Junta’s attitude to the 1978 World Cup with “…the Nazi regime’s approach to the 1936 Olympic Games. The relentless propaganda, the hiding of painful home truths, including concentration camps, and the high profile of the dictatorship…Goebbels couldn’t have organized it better himself.” The conspiracy theories are relentless; rumours of match fixing, drug taking, assassination attempts, and direct Junta intervention have swirled around for thirty years. Numerous football writers have attempted to locate the elusive “smoking gun” – namely definitive proof connecting the Junta with rigging Argentina’s games and buying off officials – but have failed in their task. Some of the biggest mysteries surround the players themselves, including the question of how complicit with the regime they really were. Full back Olguin, who disappeared for three years in the early 90s, had apparently been on the run from the vengeful remnants of the Junta’s Secret Police, who bore him a grudge for his anti Government stance. The claims are dismissed, with Olguin’s people suggesting he “decided to wander for a few years in order to find himself.” Then there is the assertion that River Plate midfielder Roberto Alonso was only in the squad due to his pro Junta leanings. Yet striker Luque provides a disturbing insight into the high stakes under which Argentina players laboured. After scraping through 2-1 in a group match against Hungary, he received a none too subtle warning from the junta about what could happen if they slipped up in their qualifying group. As well as Hungary, Argentina had been paired with France and Italy in a difficult looking section. Luque recalls: “France and Italy were very highly rated teams, and would go on to do very well four years later at the 1982 World Cup. After the Hungary match, one of the military men warned me that this could easily be a ‘group of death, as far as you are concerned.’ (Author’s note – ITV panellist Mick Channon is widely credited with coining the “Group of Death” phrase to describe Scotland’s group in the 1986 World Cup, but Luque’s version of events gives the term a more serious meaning.) He said it with a smile on his face, but I had no reason to believe that he was joking. After all, we knew how important the World Cup was for the Junta. Uppermost in my mind was that earlier that day, the brother of a close friend of mine had disappeared. His body was later found by villagers on the banks of the River Plate, with concrete attached to his legs. At that time, several opponents of the regime were thrown out of planes into the sea.” The home nation went onto win the World Cup, but not before they defeated Peru 6-0 in arguably the most controversial football match ever played. The rumours persist.
EAST GERMANY
In March 1983, Lutz Eigendorf was found dead in the wreckage
of his car. Suspicions were raised immediately, as he’d been travelling down a
straight road, and seemed, for no good reason, to have veered off into a tree.
Although traces of alcohol were later found in his blood stream, a documentary
broadcast twenty years later dared to suggest that Eigendorf had deliberately
been driven off the road. He’d begun his career with Dynamo Berlin, the team
controlled by East Germany’s notorious Secret Police – the Stasi. In 1982, when
Dynamo visited the west in a UEFA Cup tie, Eigendorf defected, and later signed
for Bundesliga outfit Kaiserslauten. According to eye witnesses, Stasi chief
Erich Mielke made it his business to wreck revenge upon Eigendof, who’d “shamed
his comrades by leaving,” and vowed to “make him pay for his crime.” The
opening of Stasi files prove that the player had been kept under constant
surveillance in the west by East German agents, and he’d been banned from
contacting his wife, who remained in the east. Tellingly, files also contained
a brief note to “dazzle” Eigendorf while he was driving. Despite the weight of
evidence, Eigendorf’s family admit “No one will ever be charged for his death.”
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