Jump to content

User:Perryprog/sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In short: Likely hoax, at best fringe, best summarized by this article (the current source for our article's "Disputes" section).

It seems to me that it's pretty likely this didn't happen, and barring some sources I've been unable to access (!), I've found nothing contemporary that claims this occurred, with maybe the one exception being the newspaper article that RSSSF cited noting off-hand there was "[...] cricket and football [...]". On the other hand, seemingly no actual documentation exists of this. The official report makes no mention of football or rugby whatsoever, and the complete lack of news from Denmark (who alleged won easily) on this is even more telling. Note that the other contemporary newspaper articles that the RSSSF cites all didn't appear to mention football whatsoever.

The commonly-cited interview with Malonis Isaias is also not very compelling. Not only is this a recount of events from 74 years ago, he only mentions the year once, and (though this is via Google Translate) claims the even harder to believe statement that "This team officially represented our country. It officially represented, just as cycling races also took place officially at the velodrome." (The translation from TopEndSports which seems otherwise fine, states this in a much weaker form that could more easily support the idea that this was an off-the-record event, and thus less likely to be in the "official record".)

Some of the other sources of evidence that I've been unable to verify:

  • I've been unable to find a copy of an article on the history of football in Ukraine, but it claims (according to TopEndSports) the Russian representative for the 1896 Olympics witnessed the match. However, the other PDF they mention (as also does support their claim.
  • I've been unable to find online copies of the four articles that the RSSSF cites by the four historians which they say agree that these matches happened. (Bergvall, Wasner, Sander, Andersen)
  • The RSSSF cites the first issue of Journal of Olympic history in 2012, but no article, and none of its articles seem relevant to these matches.