On November 21, 1973, Chile kicked off the second leg of their play-off against the Soviet Union (USSR) for a place at the 1974 World Cup finals after a 0-0 draw in Moscow on September 26.
Nine passes and 17 seconds later at the Estadio Nacional Julio Martinez Pradanos in Santiago, captain Francisco ‘Chamaco’ Valdes scored into an empty goal. Austrian referee Erich Linemayr blew the final whistle, giving Chile a 1-0 victory – later turned into a 2-0 default win — and a place at the finals the following summer in West Germany.
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Valdes’ goal, however, is not famous for its speed but because there were only 11 players on the pitch.
The USSR had refused to play in a stadium in which the Red Cross estimated that, between September and November 1973, more than 30,000 opponents of the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet were held captive, with up to 7,000 detained at one time. But football’s world governing body, FIFA, insisted the match went ahead regardless.
“I think the military junta, which was a totalitarian system, used us,” says Leonardo Veliz, who played for Chile that day and had relatives who were detained. “I felt like a harlequin.”
Ximena George-Nascimento was imprisoned on October 11, a month after Pinochet seized power. She said: “In 1973, the hypocrisy of FIFA and of the Chilean members of the South American confederation at the time is shown by allowing a game to take place during a dictatorship in a stadium in which political prisoners were detained, tortured and killed.”
In May 1973, radio reporter Vladimiro Mimica was at Chile’s national stadium covering the Libertadores final second leg between local side Colo-Colo and Independiente from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Six months later, Mimica was back at the stadium as a delegation from football’s world governing body, FIFA, came to visit. This time he was a political detainee, hidden from view beneath the stands. He describes being beaten by guards and subjected to electric shocks, and the “psychological torture” of being told his brother had been killed and his girlfriend raped.
“We had been told by the guards to hide and that we were not allowed to speak,” says Mimica, now 76. “But we could see the FIFA delegation. They simply stood in the middle of the pitch and looked around. And then they left and said that everything was normal in the stadium and in Chile.
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“It was very strange to see how a stadium from which we transmitted joy to the people of Chile through the radio or television was transformed overnight into a political prison camp.”
Chile was under the control of military officials led by Pinochet, who had overthrown the elected government of socialist Salvador Allende on September 11. In his final address to the nation, before the presidential palace was bombed, Allende said: “These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice and betrayal. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers.”
Tens of thousands of the regime’s opponents were rounded up, with the 75,000-seater stadium housing the overspill once jails and police cells could no longer accommodate all the detainees.
The coup was also linked to Cold War tensions between the United States and the USSR.
Allende had been aligned with Cuban leader — and Soviet leaning — Fidel Castro. The U.S., therefore, were content to see a change in governance. Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in 2003 on the matter: “What happened with Mr Allende is not a part of American history that we’re proud of. We now have a more accountable way of handling such matters and we have worked with Chile to help it put in place a responsible democracy.”
The USSR said they would not play in the stadium and suggested the game should be played in a neutral country. The FIFA president was Englishman Stanley Rous, a controversial character who had supported the readmission of apartheid-era South Africa in 1963. He sent a delegation to assess the situation in Chile; general-secretary Helmut Kaser and Brazilian Abilio de Almeida travelled after Helmut Riedel from East Germany and Hungarian Sandor Barcs said they did not want to be involved.
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The delegation recommended the game should go ahead.
The USSR were outraged, with the New York Times reporting the Soviet Soccer Federation also refused a compromise suggestion of playing the second leg in another Chilean city. “Match in Chile is impossible,” was the federation’s blunt message to FIFA.
The USSR refused to play and were disqualified and fined by FIFA, prompting a strongly worded statement from Moscow: “Santiago stadium has been turned into an area of torture and execution. Soviet sportsmen cannot play in a stadium stained with the blood of Chilean patriots.
“It is well known that, as a result of the fascist upheaval to overthrow the legal government, an atmosphere of bloody terrorism and repression prevails throughout Chile.”
And yet the game still went ahead — just without the Soviets. Chile went on to be grouped with hosts and eventual winners West Germany, East Germany and Australia at the tournament, but did not advance from the group.
#Onthisday in 1973 #Chile beat #USSR 1-0 and qualified for the #1974 #WorldCup. But the #USSR team wasn't there! It boycotted the game as the stadium was used by dictator #Pinochet as a prison. Chilean striker #Caszely recalled how citizens asked him to look for their relatives. pic.twitter.com/rN4y985nCT
— Football Makes History (@MakesFootball) November 26, 2020
After the contentious and curtailed qualifier, Chile played a friendly against Brazilian club Santos — without Pele, who was injured — straight afterwards, which they lost 5-0.
“The game against no opponents was bizarre,” adds Veliz. “And after we scored and the referee blew the whistle, we played a friendly. But our hearts were not in it.”
Detainee George-Nascimento says she knew that people were being tortured, raped and killed in the stadium.
“We were afraid when we were taken away for questioning,” she says. “Some never came back.
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“I was taken to different places at first before ending up in the national stadium. Women were kept in the changing rooms of the swimming pool. At the time, it was an open-area swimming pool with changing rooms at each end.
“We were kept in the stadium until the game was played or supposed to be played. Then we were taken to the Santiago women’s prison. That was better as it was run by nuns. I was released after exactly one year in detention.”
Half a century on and George-Nascimento believes little has changed in terms of FIFA’s outlook, given the governing body’s decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar despite allegations of serious human rights abuses, including Qatar’s criminalisation of homosexuality, the widespread death of migrant workers and the limited rights of women in the country.
“Thinking about it now, I don’t think I’m angry,” she says. “I think I’m angrier at other things, not FIFA. I couldn’t care less about that bunch of corrupt men, basically. “It (FIFA) has constantly disregarded human rights. And nothing has changed, as can be seen by last year’s World Cup in Qatar.”
FIFA feel they have integrated far-reaching human rights requirements into their bidding and hosting processes, including a specific article on human rights in their Statutes. They declined to comment directly on the incident that took place in Chile in 1973.
Additional contributors: Peter Auf der Heyde, Veronica Llerena
(Top photo: Candles at the Chilean National Stadium in September 2013. Francesco Degasperi /AFP via Getty Images)