No. 1 Crime: Defecting to the West
The problem with athletes defecting to the West first emerged as early as 1947, and remained one of sport leaders’ top priorities leading up to 1956. It all started with László Kubala. His series of consecutive defections exemplified the lack of border controls and overall disarray of postwar Eastern Europe.[1] Kubala’s initial defection in 1946 sparked the struggling postwar sport administration to prevent more from leaving. The non-communist, pre-1948 sport leaders used newspaper headlines to address the issue publicly, and to try to convince athletes to stay. Articles in Népsport (The People’s Sport) changed tactics about halfway through 1946 in order to keep athletes in. First, they sought to convince athletes that professional sport was not the “way” for them, saying that it was “morally impossible for them to leave Hungary and continue their careers elsewhere.”[2] By July of 1946, the tone shifted to an outright condemnation of athletes who left Hungary.[3] Two months later, the Ministry of Sport announced that athletes who tried to cross the border illegally faced perpetual disqualification from sport.[4] The significant change in tone and approach to the issue illustrates the growing concern, and even outright anxiety, about losing precious athletes to other countries – even to their soon-to-be socialist brother, Czechoslovakia.
Kubala became a target of Communist scorn following his departure from Hungary. He enjoyed a highly successful career with FC Barcelona, beginning officially in 1951. Kubala was forever a foe of the Hungarian National Physical Education and Sport Office (OTSH), by giving future defected athletes a home at Barca.