There was a time in the history of Soviet football when the national team lost a match and it resulted in the dismantling of the entire club, and the team’s coach Boris Arkadyev was stripped of the title of Merited Master of Sports.

It happened during in the round of 16 of the 1952 Olympic football tournament in Finland when the Soviet team faced off against Yugoslavia. There were serious political undertones to this match as after the Second World War Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito opted for socialism. The Soviet team was expected to win at all costs, even though almost half of its players were injured. Nevertheless, by the 59th minute the Soviet team was down by a humiliating score of 1-5.

With fifteen minutes to go before the end of the match, the Soviet players performed a miracle by catching up and drawing even at 5-5. Under the tournament rules, the teams had to face each other one more time the next day, but this time the USSR was unable to replicate its achievement and lost 1-3.

Back home, the news of the Soviet team’s defeat by Yugoslavia came as a shock, leading to two directives. The first one was to dismantle CDSA, a football club that won multiple national titles. Under the second directive, several team players and its coach, Boris Arkadyev, were stripped of the title of Merited Master of Sports. Boris Arkadyev did not recover his title until 1955.