As the football season gears up for another
9 months entertaining the world, I thought it would be a good time to revisit
our occasional series on the origins and histories of football club names. I
don’t know about you, but I have often wondered about where some of the eastern
European clubs acquired their interesting names, like Spartak, Dynamo and
Torpedo.
In its simplest form the answer is that the
football clubs were formed by national sports societies in the former Soviet Union,
and the communist countries of eastern Europe. All sport in the Soviet Union
was amateur until it was realised that sporting success was a great
advertisement for the USSR, and professionalism improved the chances of
success! But this explanation does hide some interesting stories.
Most of these sports societies were formed
by industrial trade unions; hence you will not be surprised that the Lokomotiv
sports society was formed by the rail workers’ unions. However, this being the
Soviet Union, all of the trade unions were state sponsored so ownership of the
sports clubs was actually vested in the various government departments. This
led to some interesting situations. For instance the Dynamo Sports Club was
owned and controlled by the Interior Ministry, and effectively was the sports
club of the police. However Moscow Dynamo was adopted by the Cheka, the first
Russian secret police and forerunner to the KGB! For some reason Moscow Dynamo was
the most successful football club of the communist era, winning an amazing 11 Russian
premier league titles, the Russian Cup 7 times, and the Russian Super Cup once.
This is not to say that they were not a great team; as unknowns they toured the
UK in 1945 where they comprehensively beat Arsenal and Cardiff City, and drew
with Chelsea and Rangers. They were also runners up in the UEFA cup in 1972.
The Spartak sports club started life under
the aegis of the food producing unions, although this was later extended to
cover a range of industries. Subsequently the Spartak club came to represent
the general population rather than just one industry. This did not stop Spartak
Moscow gaining the nickname “the Meat”. The name Spartak was adopted as a
reference to the Roman slave Spartacus, who whilst best known for his rebellion
against Roman occupation, was also a renowned athlete. Interestingly, across
the Soviet Union and eastern Europe large athletics and gymnastics tournaments
and displays were known as Spartakiada.
The Torpedo sports club represented the
automotive industry, and football clubs bearing the name Torpedo tended to form
where there were large car, tractor or heavy vehicle factories. For those who
remember the communist era cars, Lada, Wartburg, Zil, Trabant etc, the name
Torpedo does seem rather like wishful thinking!
Let us end with a sad tale. Dynamo Kiev,
which was founded in 1927 very quickly became a successful football team, and was
one of the few teams that could compete with Dynamo Moscow. When the German
Army invaded Ukraine in 1941 the team was disbanded and the players found other
work. A number started working for a local bakery, and continued to play on an amateur
basis. They quickly came to the attention of the occupying German forces, and
were invited to play a “friendly” against an army team. The Ukrainian players
adopted the team name “FC Start” and comprised 8 members of the former Dynamo
Kiev team and 3 members from Lokomotiv Kiev. FC Start comprehensively defeated
two teams from the German army, and twice defeated a Hungarian team. This
brought them to the attention of the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force, who
proposed a game against the unbeaten Flakelf team. This game was widely
advertised, but the result was not. FC Start beat Flakelf twice in 2 weeks. On
August 16 1942 FC Start beat Rukh 8-0, and starting on 18 August 1942 the FC Start
team members were systematically arrested, tortured and imprisoned. While
contemporary accounts vary it appears that at least two players died under
torture, and three more players died in Syrets labour camp. This game became
known as the “Death Match” and was a game of life and death indeed! It is
widely believed that this incident was the inspiration for the movie Escape to
Victory, but being a Hollywood version of the story there is no mention of the
Ukraine, or the teams from Kiev!
Don’t forget to visit our website www.writtenenglishcorrected.com, and
follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment