Fascism and Football - BBC4 last night

[janaage]

followed by "communism and football".


Only saw the last half of the first and the first half of the second but both were quality programmes.

I never realised how football was so corrupted by the two political extremes.  Hitler, Mussolini and General Franco affected the sporting world stage as well as the political one.

Franco especially was a shit, I never realised that he basically stole Alfredo di Stefano from Barcelona in the 50's.  I knew he supported them but fuck me that bloke was a wanker.  Makes me dislike Real even more.

Also the fucking communists were assholes, sending a load of Spartak players and Soviet players to the gulags to make sure the communist Dinamo team were the best team.

Well worth a watch if repeated.

[janaage]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/fascism-and-football.shtml

That's the link, doesn't say when it'll be on again though.

PS that's the English team (in the white) performing the nazi salute just before a friendly against Germany in 1938 Berlin.  All to do with Chamerlain's policy of appeasement with Hitler.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I saw the one about Communism and football but missed the Nazi one unfortunately.  It was facinating stuff indeed. I had read a bit about Beria  the KGB bloke sending the Spartak players off to Siberia because they were Dinamo Moscow's biggest rivals - You couldn't make it up!

[janaage]

That was class, best bit of that story was when Stalin died, Beria fell out of favour and was excuted, on his knees begging to be spared.  The the players were released!!  Would make a great film that.

[Piemonte]

Wish I'd watched these, sound interesting

[Arriba]

there was a later programme that had footage of swindon town in the 60's,naming the team and players collecting their wages ect.showed don rogers leaving his digs(corner house on shrivvy road under the floodlights)mike summerbee going to the local shop after getting paid and stuff like that.plus footage of the crowd.ground was full then

[sonicyouth]

the fascism and football thing is repeated fairly often on bbc4.