The Day the Players Disappeared

The Day the Players Disappeared

There have been some shocking refereeing decisions in the past few years. Whether it be the referee sending off the wrong man, ghost goals being allowed, or leg-breaking defenders getting away with a warning, the man in black is often prone to an absolute howler. However, way back in 1945, one referee’s decision led to perhaps the most farcical match of football ever played.

Dynamo Moscow were due to play Arsenal in a match that would end the Soviet champions highly successful tour of Britain, in which they had thrashed Cardiff 10-1 and put on a very entertaining display against Chelsea in front of nearly 100,000 spectators, the match finishing 3-3. But the centrepiece of the tour was the highly anticipated math versus Arsenal, to be played at White Hart Lane after Arsenal’s usual home, Highbury, was yet to be converted back into a football stadium after being used as an air-raid control centre during the war. Dynamo coach Mikhail Yakushin even said: “To come to London and not play Arsenal would be like visiting Cairo without seeing the pyramids.”

However, on the day of the big match, a pea-souper fog descended upon North London that seemed destined to end the tie. Players assumed the match was to be called off and stayed in their changing rooms waiting to be told of the cancellation. But Russian referee Nikolay Latyshev, not wanting to be the one to tell the 54,000 spectators that there would be no match, ushered the players out onto the pitch – not that the fans could even tell. The fog was so thick that, with the Arsenal players unable to make out the ball, Dynamo Moscow scored straight from kick-off to take a very early 1-0 lead.

As the game progressed, fans and players alike expected the game to be abandoned, but the madness continued despite the appalling weather. Fans were only able to catch glimpses of play, while the players had to rely on shadows and just hope the man they were tackling actually had the ball.

Both teams, especially Moscow, quickly adopted their own set of rules, with the Russians making a substitution but not actually taking a player off, unbeknown to ref Latyshev who was virtually half-blind. Some spectators even claim that the visitors had 15 players on the pitch at one time. Despite the clear numerical disadvantage, Arsenal managed to take a 3-1 lead and seemed to be working around the shocking visibility. However, Dynamo levelled the tie after a blatantly offside goal was allowed to stand. Perplexed by the decision, Arsenal players reportedly confronted the referee, who went to consult the linesman. However, upon arrival at the touchline, Latyshev discovered that both of the linesmen were in fact on the other side of the pitch, unable to see each other through the fog.

Arsenal resorted to their own dirty tactics, with a player that had previously been sent off for fighting sneaking back onto the pitch and playing the remainder of the game. Moscow took the lead though the scorer was again offside, and the final farcical action of the day, and perhaps the most shocking, was when the Arsenal goalkeeper lost his bearings in the fog and ran into his own goalpost, knocking himself out cold. A spectator took his place in goal and the match continued as if nothing had happened.

The match finally ended with Dynamo Moscow winning 4-3, with Arsenal captain Cliff Bastin summing the match up with, “So long as the Dynamos got the ball in the net, even if they carried it there, the referee was going to award them a goal.” And all of this chaos could have been avoided, if it wasn’t for the frankly mad decisions made by the referee before and during the game. Very few people are around now to recall what happened that day over 70 years ago, but even if they were, none of them could tell you what happened; even the players didn’t know.