Game Ending

A telephone call came through one day last week from Budapest to Rio de Janeiro's Hotel Gloria. On the Rio end, three of the world's top soccer players took their turns for one minute of conversation. On the Budapest end were the players' wives, all with the same message: "Please come home! Everything will be all right." The Hungarian government was leaving no weapon untried in an effort to lure its topflight Honved soccer team back from a renegade jaunt.

For more than a month the 19 squad members have been hailed as heroes of democracy as well as sport. On a European tour when revolution broke out at home, they played out their scheduled games and then, defying orders to return to Hungary, flew to Brazil to take on Rio's Flamengo squad (TIME, Jan. 28). Crowds of 100,000-plus turned out for the games, and the Honved team lived well on its $10,000 per match.

Back home, the Hungarian Soccer Federation pulled out the rule book, and the International Soccer Federation backed it up. Honved's tour, warned the world group, was illegal, and any team playing them would be subject to fine or suspension. Flamengo went ahead anyway, but the reaction elsewhere was not so brave. Several other Brazilian teams refused to play, and from soccer federations in Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico, Peru and the U.S. came word that no matches with Honved would be authorized. Though still dickering last week for two Flamengo-Honved games in Venezuela, the Hungarians were rapidly running out of opponents.

Some of the top players may take up good offers from European clubs. "But most of them have relatives inside," said Team Manager Emil Oesterreicher. "They will want to go back." The squad will fly to Vienna this month, "and then every man will decide for himself."

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