No Fraternisation—Not even on the Football Field

The Russian Government, which won’t allow its citizens to marry foreigners and is busily cutting off its scientists from outside contacts, doesn’t even like the idea of playing football with German teams. The following report from Moscow appeared in the New York Tribune (European Edition, 25/11/48):

“The sports newspaper, Soviet Sport, accused Swiss football authorities to-day of ‘crude violations of statutes and of decisions of the International Football Federation’ for sending three teams into the American zone of Germany.
Three Swiss teams recently played at Stuttgart, Munich and Karlsruhe. It was the first fissure in the sports quarantine clamped on Germany at the end of the war.
In criticising this, Soviet Sport said German participation in international football should be preceded by ‘unity of Germany’s sports movement based on democratisation, demilitarisation and de-Nazification.’ The article said the International Football Federation clearly forbade members playing with non-members. The Germans are out.”