Soviet Football's Aircrash Tragedy

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In the latest in a series leading up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Sporting Witness goes back to the tragic story of the Uzbek football team, Pakhtakor, which lost 17 players and coaches in an air crash in 1979. Pakhtakor was the only Uzbek team in the Soviet first division and the Central Asian republic was devastated by an accident which the Moscow authorities initially tried to hide. Monica Whitlock talks to the writer, BBC broadcaster and childhood Pakhtakov fan, Hamid Ismailov. PHOTO: The Pakhtakor team shortly before the 1979 crash (Pakhtakor Football Club, Tashkent)