On the border between sport and politics:

Hakoah Vienna’s Tournée around Poland in 1924 in the light of press reports

Abstract

In 1924, Poland was visited by numerous foreign football teams. One of tchem was Hakoah Vienna, a very popular club with the Jewish diaspora. It was not the first time that this Austrian club happened to play in Poland, but during that trip, Hakoah’s players came to previously unvisited cities such as Warsaw. The arrival of Hakoah caused quite a turmoil among the Jewish population in most of the towns, especially in the Zionist environment with which they were connected. The Jewish and Polish press closely followed this journey. Some Polish journalists implied that the trip had a political overtone and sport was not its main purpose. Hakoah played many games with significantly weaker teams, which were also associated with the Zionist movement. Moreover, the club visited only towns with a large population of Jews. The guests from Vienna won all eleven matches, including against Polish clubs. At the railway stations, players were greeted by welcoming committees, Zionist organizations, and fans. They also participated in special events. The main point of the trip was a visit to Warsaw. The welcoming ceremony at the station turned into a demonstration of many thousands of Jews. The Polonia Warsaw–Hakoah Vienna game attracted an over-capacity crowd of spectators, mostly Jewish residents of the capital. The game on the pitch was rough and was abandoned before the end. Additionally, the atmosphere in the stands was very tense. Despite the bad organization of the event, there were no riots. Afterwards, there was an intense dispute in the press over the incidents at the match in Warsaw. These events have seriously undermined the existing good Polish-Jewish cooperation in the field of sports.