The introduction takes the reader straight to the heart of Cold War football, beginning in 1979 with the defection to the West of East German superstar Lutz Eigendorf, killed four years later in a car accident that may, or may not, have been caused by communist secret police ‘Stasi’ agents who tracked his every move. It then discusses another, altogether friendlier East–West encounter in the same year, between East German side FC Magdeburg and AFC Wrexham. These twin stories provide the framework for an opening discussion of football’s rich and varied role in the defining conflict of the twentieth century, the Cold War. The introduction finishes with brief tasters of the ten matches that will be studied in the book.