The qualification for World Cup 1974 was one of the oddest in history. FIFA insisted that only 16 would qualify out of the 95 participating nations, and USSR felt the brunt of this decision. Despite winning European group easily, they were forced to play a play-off against Chile. The Russians were frustrated, this was the first time a European team and a South American team have a WC play-off.

The first round in Moscow at the end of September was uneventful ending 0-0. But events back in Chile had grave consequences for the Russians. Let me explain, on September 11 1973, the democratically elected president Salvadore Allende was overthrown in a military coup and burned to death. The perpetrator was a sinister dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, or just General Pinochet.

General Pinochet had a brutal way to deal with his opponents, they were either brutally murdered or became los desaparecidos (the disappeared). You can probably guess where they “vanished”.

Pinochet was fanatically anti-communist, thousands left-wing sympathizers were rounded up and taken to Estadio Nacional. The same stadium that saw Brazil’s triumph against Czechoslovakia to lift their 2^nd World Cup. Unspeakable atrocities happened in the deep belly of the stadium, fingers were chopped, women were raped in front of their husbands, and children were abused as their helpless mothers looked in horror.

The news had reached Moscow, and the Russians were facing a dilemma. A lot of countries abandoned their morals in pursuit of World Cup glory, but the Russians decided to take the moral high ground on this one. They decided not to attend their scheduled match on the 21^st of November 1973. Their Football Federation Chief, Valentin Granatkin, was adamant: “Soviet sportsmen cannot play on a ground stained with the blood of Chilean patriots”

Normally Chile qualified for the 1974 World Cup by default, but not before holding a bizarre phantom match. 40,000 spectators watched 1 team of 11 players in their full kits finish off a neat nine-man move with a close-range tap-in from their captain.

Chile failed to impress in the World Cup and lost all their matches. While Pinochet retained power until 1990. He was later arrested in London in 1998 for human-rights violation during his tenure. Only to be released by Jack Straw, the then home secretary, on “health grounds.

Here is a documentary about the whole coup and Pinochet’s atrocities.