36. The Reality of the Death Match
Two matches did take place on August 6th and 9th, 1942, between German side Flakelf and Ukrainian team Start FC, whose players worked in a factory operating under Nazi management. About a week later, the Gestapo arrested eight Start players, of whom five were executed.
However, the arrests were unrelated to the match against Flakelf. Members of another Ukrainian team, that had been humiliatingly trounced by Start 8 – 0, had informed the German authorities that several Start players were former NKVD (a forerunner of the KGB) members.