You're reading: Start Stadium, scene of World War II match, sold in shady deal

Kyiv’s Start Stadium, where an infamous 1942 soccer “death match” took place between Nazi Germans and Ukrainians, may soon disappear from the city landscape.

The stadium has been privatized and sold to an undisclosed company for Hr 10 million.

However, some press reports – citing anonymous sources – identify the buyer as Golden House, a company that reportedly has ties to Vadym Sisyuk, a former assistant to Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and a deputy family, sports and youth minister.

No information could be found about Golden House and Sisyuk could not be reached for comment.

On Aug. 9, demonstrators with the Coalition of Participants of the Orange Revolution protested the sale by re-enacting the 1942 match at the stadium.

As usual, the State Property Fund is as opaque as ever about details, saying it is not required by law to disclose the buyers or details of how the transaction took place.

Privatization of state assets in Ukraine has been non-transparent and uncompetitive throughout Ukraine’s independent history, with most assets getting snapped up by insiders for a small fraction of the property’s worth. It amounts to, some allege, grand-scale theft from the Ukrainian people.

After the recreated game, they protested with the slogan: “Don’t make a finish out of Start” and lit candles in memory of Start players.

Government officials justified this sale by saying the stadium was in poor condition and that no money exists for its reconstruction.

The stadium is now part of an open recreation area favored by families with children.

The State Property Fund says the stadium will remain, although the fate of the surrounding land in the purchase – a wooded area – is in doubt.

The stadium is famous as the site of the legendary “death match” on August 9, 1942, which was part of a series of football matches between the occupying Nazi German football team Flakelf and the team from the Kyiv bread-making plant Start. The Germans lost 5 to 3.

One Soviet legend is that the Nazis, unhappy with losing the matches, executed all players involved.

That account, however, is disputed and some accounts say the truth is more complicated and that the players were actually sent to prison camps that some survived the World War II imprisonment.

The story inspired the 1981 movie “Escape to Victory,” starring actors Michael Caine and Sylvestor Stallone.