Exercise 4.1 - Solution

Kispest AC was a club from a working-class district of Budapest. In 1949 the army took it over and it became Budapest Honvéd ("defender of the homeland").

Why it helped the national team:
- Military service was compulsory, so the army club could gather talented young men, and several of the best players of the day ended up at Honvéd.
- Many of the national side's key players (Puskás, Kocsis, Bozsik) therefore trained and played together at club level, which suited Sebes's settled-group approach.
- The state gave the club resources, as part of using sport as a showpiece.

Note: sources differ on how much was direct pressure and how much attraction, so the exact mechanism is hedged.