Ukraine blocks film on soccer match vs. Nazis

Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine

It’s a game that every Ukrainian knows about: The “Death Match” of 1942, when top Kiev soccer players trounced a team of Nazi occupiers and reportedly paid for it with their lives.

But Ukrainian authorities Tuesday froze the release of a movie depicting that Soviet defiance of Nazi Germany because of concerns it could ignite explosive emotions just weeks before Ukraine co-hosts the 2012 European Championship.

Officials fear that “The Match,” which extolls the heroism of Ukrainian soccer players but portrays many Kiev residents as Nazi collaborators would teach Ukrainian audiences the wrong image of their country and history.

Some experts also fear that it may stoke hostility toward German players fans as Ukraine hosts several games played by Germany’s national team.

The movie tells the story of the Aug. 9, 1942, match, which pitted a Wehrmacht team against players from Kiev’s top club Dynamo and other athletes. The Ukrainian team won 5-3 despite reported warnings from the SS that they must lose to their occupiers. Most team members soon were arrested.

A Soviet journalist dubbed the game the “Death Match” and Soviet authorities long cultivated the legend that the entire team was executed by the Nazis soon afterward. A monument to those players now stands outside the Dynamo stadium.

Historians now say that though defeating the Nazi team undoubtedly was courageous, there is no evidence to suggest all the players were executed in revenge.

Nine of the players were arrested about a week after the match. One soon died in custody, and three others were shot in a Kiev concentration camp some six months later, according to Volodymyr Prystaiko, a former Soviet security officer who wrote a book about the match.