There were huge queues to get tickets for the clash between Arsenal and Dynamo Moscow (Picture: William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images)
As one of the first international club clashes following the end of World War Two, it’s no wonder that tens of thousands of football fans started queuing at midnight to bag the best seats.
The only drawback? The fog was so thick that they couldn’t see the action – and neither could the referee.
The 1945 match between Arsenal and Russian team Dynamo Moscow has been described as one of the greatest games ‘never seen’.
Calls to postpone the game were waved away due to the huge turnout and the chaos that ensued has gone down in history, with the cover of fog resulting in both teams using underhand tactics that involved punches being thrown, extra players on the pitch and spectators joining in.
The Second World War had ended just months before. Britain and the USSR had fought alongside each other, but tensions between the countries were beginning to grow as news of the Soviet atomic bomb project emerged.
Keen to foster good relations, the Russian Embassy in London encouraged the British government and the Football Association to invite Dynamo Moscow, the league champions in the Soviet Union, to tour the UK. The club was owned by Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Secret Soviet Police.
The game was played at Tottenham’s White Hart Stadium, pictured here in 1935, as Highbury was still being used as an Air Raid Precaution centre by the Ministry of Defence (Picture: Fox Photos/Getty Images)
No Russian team had ever played in the UK before, and the government was sceptical of the plan.
‘It would take much more than a football match to break down the real barriers which the Soviet government firmly believe in,’ said one government spokesperson.
The tour got off to an awkward start when the Russian team were offered accommodation in the Wellington Barracks in St James’ Park. Faced with beds without sheets and pillows, the team refused to proceed until given proper accommodation – which they eventually were, in the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square.
The Evening Standard wrote: ‘Don’t expect much from Dynamo. They are only beginners, blue-collars, amateurs.’
That didn’t matter to London’s football fans. Football leagues had been put on hold during the war and the throngs that turned up were eager to watch any game going.
The first match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge was a riotous affair. Tens of thousands of football fans lined up to watch the game. Some people were so desperate to get a glimpse of the action that they climbed onto the glass and corrugated iron roofs of the stands – only to crash through moments later. The chaos was a sign of things to come.
The Arsenal v Dynamo Moscow game was scheduled to take place at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane stadium. Highbury was still being used as an Air Raid Precaution centre by the Ministry of Defence at the time.
Moscow Dynamo keeper Khomich peers into the fog (Picture: Daily Herald Archive/National Science & Media Museum/SSPL via Getty Images)
The queues for the game started the night before the match. By the next morning, police ordered for the grounds to be opened early, to stop the swell of people turning dangerous. By midday, 40,000 people had piled into the stadium.
The crowd was ready, but the teams were not. Arsenal were faced with an incomplete squad. Several of their players were stationed in armies across the world. They drafted in guest players, including Stoke City’s Stanley Matthews, Blackpool’s Stan Mortenson and Fulham’s Joe Bacuzzi.
As kickoff approached, the teams faced another dilemma. A blanket of fog had descended on the pitch, making it impossible to see more than 30 metres. Before the Clean Air Act, the fog in London could be thick, yellow, and even deadly at times – a result of natural mists mixing with industrial fumes.
Dynamo wanted to postpone the match, but with so many people already seated in the stadium, the organisers wanted to push ahead with their plans. By the time the game started, there were 54,000 people watching.
The game kicked off, but the fog was so thick that it was difficult to see the action unfold. Russian referee Nikolay Latyshev, who would go on to officiate the 1962 World Cup, had his work cut out for him and made both his assistants run the same side of the pitch.
The low visibility meant that the rules quickly went out the window. Some onlookers said that the Russian team had 15 players on the field at one point.
Dynamo took the lead within the first minute. Then things got nasty. Arsenal keeper Wyn Griffiths took several hits to the head – including, according to one report, one blow when he ran into the goalpost because he couldn’t see it. He was so concussed that he didn’t know the score.
QPR’s Harry Brown was watching the game from the stands – and when Griffith needed to be replaced, he jumped onto the pitch to play in goal.
Arsenal players gathered around their goalkeeper, who was injured during the game (Picture: Daily Herald Archive/National Science & Media Museum/SSPL via Getty Images)
Action stepped up towards the end of the first half, when Arsenal scored three times in four minutes. Just before time was up, Dynamo’s Konstantin Beskov pulled one back, and Arsenal went into the break with a 3-2 lead.
But things only got even messier in the second half. Dynamo’s Sergeo Solovyov scored a goal early on, even though he was said to have been blatantly offside as the linesmen stared into the gloom.
When Arsenal were denied a penalty appeal, thing got heated and George Drury got a red card for throwing a punch. Not that it mattered. He simply disappeared into the fog and continued the game, with the referee completely unaware he hadn’t left the pitch.
In the midst of the fracas, Dynamo’s Vsevolod Bobrov scored after receiving the ball in an offside position. Arsenal fought back and got another goal, but the ‘perfectly fair’ attempt was disallowed.
Determined to win and spurred on by the unfair setbacks, Arsenal’s Ronnie Rooke charged across the pitch with the ball, but Dynamo captain Mikhail Semichastniy intercepted him with what was described as a rugby tackle. Rooke’s realised that his head was bleeding: it had been cut open in the clash.
He pushed Semichastniy away and gave him a black eye before smashing the ball home from 25 yards, but the referee disallowed it and brought the game back to where the elbow had taken place.
Watching from the sidelines, the Soviet Embassy First Secretary declined the request from Arsenal manager George Allison to stop the game and concede the match.
Dynamo won with a final score of 4-3, with the Daily Mail crowning the match as ‘one of the most exciting games 54,000 people never saw.’