The 1973 play-off for a place in the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany, between the national football teams of the Soviet Union and Chile, is notable for the political circumstances that marked the second leg of the play-off on 21 November 1973. It was scheduled to take place in the Estadio Nacional de Chile in Santiago, the Chilean capital. There had been a coup d'état in Chile two months before, whereupon people deemed undesirable to the new regime of Augusto Pinochet had been held captive and executed in the stadium. The Soviet Union asked FIFA to find a different venue in Chile; when agreement could not be reached, the Soviet team did not take the field and was disqualified from the tournament, giving the Chilean team a victory by walkover. However, the match was still organised by FIFA as normal, but without any away team present. Chile scored 1–0 in an empty goal, and then the referee blew the game off. Chile advanced to the 1974 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the first round.
