In today's world of big-money soccer, managers know all about pressure and the fear of defeat, of being pilloried in the press, chewed out by chairmen and threatened with the ultimate sanction -- the sack.
Things were rather different 50 years ago in Soviet soccer.
When the Red Army team lost two of its three games on a tour of Czechoslovakia, it had to answer personally to Josef Stalin, a man who had had millions shot or sent to the gulag for less.
Recently released material from the Kremlin archives has given a rare glimpse into the paranoid world of soccer under Stalin.
In a secret report, published this week by Futbol magazine, Communist party apparatchiks documented for Stalin a catalogue of supposed failings by players and officials during the 1947 tour by CDKA, the forerunner of today's army team CSKA Moscow.
The criticism even reached the Politburo itself. Defense chief Kliment Voroshilov "displayed excessive credulity" towards the army commissars and sports chiefs who had assured him CDKA would win.
"Comrade Stalin, on your orders we have investigated the reasons for the defeat of the CDKA soccer team," the report began. The main reason, it concluded, was over-confidence.
"The All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sport [sports ministry] did not know the class of football played by the Czechoslovak teams, underestimated their strengths and wrongly informed the CDKA team victory would be easy," it said.
For Stalin, trying to consolidate his grip on Eastern Europe, sport was politics.
In 1947, the Czechoslovak communists were still jostling for power against democratic rivals. Defeat for the Red Army on the soccer field was a grave loss of face.
"The Committee did not know that the management of the football federation in Czechoslovakia was in the hands of reactionaries and did not inform the players of the CDKA team that they would have to deal with bourgeois sportsmen," the report said.
Boris Arkadyev came in for the sort of criticism today's managers know too well.
"Arkadyev is a man without sufficient willpower and also does not have enough authority among the players," the investigators charged. "Incorrect tactics were followed. The midfield was not reinforced to counter the Czechs' strong forward line, there were substitutions during games etc." "The collective spirit and mutual support characteristic of Soviet soccer was absent from the CDKA team's game.," the report found.
Vsevolod Bobrov, probably the best Soviet player of the day, was singled out for the kind of jibe glamorous strikers get used to but rarely face the threat of the gulag for.
"Center-forward Bobrov ... neglected the success of the team as a whole in pursuit of personal popularity," the report said.
The Soviet sports minister who led the touring party ordered Arkadyev to drop Bobrov -- even though he had scored both goals in CDKA's 2-1 win over Sparta Prague in the first match.
They went on to lose 4-3 to Ostrava and 3-2 to Bratislava.
"We consider it necessary to impose punishment," the report concluded, naming the sports minister and his deputy along with the chief political commissar of the Red Army.
It is not clear exactly what happened to them. But Stalin, for once, seems to have been merciful. Voroshilov survived to become titular head of state after Stalin's death.
Arkadyev and CDKA went on to win the league and cup double in 1948. Bobrov and others were simply barred from touring for some time.
Fear of a repeat failure may have played a part in Stalin's decision not to send any Soviet athletes to the 1948 Olympics in London. Four years later, the Soviet sporting machine was primed and powered its way on to the international scene at Helsinki.
Its footballers, many from CDKA, failed to take that year's Olympic title, which went to Hungary. A furious Stalin had CDKA disbanded.
He had his revenge, too, on the Czechoslovak "bourgeois sportsmen." Three months after their soccer victory, a communist coup d'etat in Prague brought the country under Soviet control.
Things were rather different 50 years ago in Soviet soccer.
When the Red Army team lost two of its three games on a tour of Czechoslovakia, it had to answer personally to Josef Stalin, a man who had had millions shot or sent to the gulag for less.
Recently released material from the Kremlin archives has given a rare glimpse into the paranoid world of soccer under Stalin.
In a secret report, published this week by Futbol magazine, Communist party apparatchiks documented for Stalin a catalogue of supposed failings by players and officials during the 1947 tour by CDKA, the forerunner of today's army team CSKA Moscow.
The criticism even reached the Politburo itself. Defense chief Kliment Voroshilov "displayed excessive credulity" towards the army commissars and sports chiefs who had assured him CDKA would win.
"Comrade Stalin, on your orders we have investigated the reasons for the defeat of the CDKA soccer team," the report began. The main reason, it concluded, was over-confidence.
"The All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sport [sports ministry] did not know the class of football played by the Czechoslovak teams, underestimated their strengths and wrongly informed the CDKA team victory would be easy," it said.
For Stalin, trying to consolidate his grip on Eastern Europe, sport was politics.
In 1947, the Czechoslovak communists were still jostling for power against democratic rivals. Defeat for the Red Army on the soccer field was a grave loss of face.
"The Committee did not know that the management of the football federation in Czechoslovakia was in the hands of reactionaries and did not inform the players of the CDKA team that they would have to deal with bourgeois sportsmen," the report said.
Boris Arkadyev came in for the sort of criticism today's managers know too well.
"Arkadyev is a man without sufficient willpower and also does not have enough authority among the players," the investigators charged. "Incorrect tactics were followed. The midfield was not reinforced to counter the Czechs' strong forward line, there were substitutions during games etc." "The collective spirit and mutual support characteristic of Soviet soccer was absent from the CDKA team's game.," the report found.
Vsevolod Bobrov, probably the best Soviet player of the day, was singled out for the kind of jibe glamorous strikers get used to but rarely face the threat of the gulag for.
"Center-forward Bobrov ... neglected the success of the team as a whole in pursuit of personal popularity," the report said.
The Soviet sports minister who led the touring party ordered Arkadyev to drop Bobrov -- even though he had scored both goals in CDKA's 2-1 win over Sparta Prague in the first match.
They went on to lose 4-3 to Ostrava and 3-2 to Bratislava.
"We consider it necessary to impose punishment," the report concluded, naming the sports minister and his deputy along with the chief political commissar of the Red Army.
It is not clear exactly what happened to them. But Stalin, for once, seems to have been merciful. Voroshilov survived to become titular head of state after Stalin's death.
Arkadyev and CDKA went on to win the league and cup double in 1948. Bobrov and others were simply barred from touring for some time.
Fear of a repeat failure may have played a part in Stalin's decision not to send any Soviet athletes to the 1948 Olympics in London. Four years later, the Soviet sporting machine was primed and powered its way on to the international scene at Helsinki.
Its footballers, many from CDKA, failed to take that year's Olympic title, which went to Hungary. A furious Stalin had CDKA disbanded.
He had his revenge, too, on the Czechoslovak "bourgeois sportsmen." Three months after their soccer victory, a communist coup d'etat in Prague brought the country under Soviet control.
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