Serving for state and industry by doing nothing but practice and play : Football shamateurism in East Germany, Hungary and Romania

This presentation aims at discussing the opportunities and limitations of football players in East Germany, Hungary and Romania in the period between the end of World War II (1945) and the collapse of the Eastern bloc (1989). Football served as an important propaganda tool for the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the political elites supported football players financially with sinecures in the military, police, and in commercial and industrial companies, as well as by releasing them for training and competitions in their associated clubs. Their status as “shamateurs” granted them privileges in socialist societies over common people but also limited their possibilities to deve…