In 1969 Honduras and El Salvador fought a war that lasted 4 days, costing countless lives, known as the Football War.
The two teams played 3 games in as many weeks, both aiming for qualification to the 1979 World Cup in Mexico, a competition neither team had qualified for.
Honduras won the first game 1-0 in their capital Tegucigalpa, the hotel the El Salvador team were staying at was a target for Honduras fans, they gathered outside and managed to keep the El Salvador players up most of the night.
El Salvador won the return game 3-0 in Sal Salvador, the home teams fans getting their own back on the Honduras fans that disturbed their teams sleep before the first game with a mass gathering and flag burning outside the Honduras’ hotel.
This meant that the two teams ended up on the same number of points in their qualifying group so there was to be a one off playoff game in the Azteca stadium Mexico fo the right to go to the World Cup.
The playoff game went to extra time after a 2-2 draw in 90 minutes, when in the 116th minute El Salvador’s Pipo Rodriguez scored the winner to send them to The World Cup.
Less than 3 weeks later El Salvador declared war on Honduras.
The two countries share a border, El Salvador being the smaller, with a population of 3 million in 1969, Honduras had roughly the same population in a far bigger country, that lead to 300,000 Salvadorans migrating to Honduras. The Honduran government had recently passed land reforms, taking away land from migrants and giving it to native Hondurans. After the second game between the two counties it’s reported that the migrants were treated in a way ‘that resembled genocide.’
Before the playoffgame El Salvador cut all diplomatic ties with Honduras, 12,000 Salvadorans had been forced to flee Honduras.
The Government in El Salvador said that Honduras had “done nothing to prevent murder, oppression, rape, plundering and the mass expulsion of Salvadorans, the government of Honduras has not taken any effective measures to punish these crimes which constitute genocide, nor has it given assurances of indemnification or reparations for the damages caused to Salvadorans”.
14th July 1969 was when military action begun. Salvadorian Air Force used passenger planes with explosives strapped the their sides as bombers attacked targets in Honduras including Toncontin international airport, which meant the Honduran Air Force couldn’t react quickly, they retaliated by bombing the port in El Salvador, where the main oil facility are based. The larger El Salvador army launched offensive on the two main roads connecting the two countries and invaded Honduras. El Salvador made quick advances towards the capital Tegucigalpa.
Honduras called the OAS (organisation of American states) fearing El Salvador would invade the capital city. A cease fire was agreed on July 18th. Though El Salvador didn’t pull its troop out of Honduras until August 2nd, under heavy threat of economic sanctions, and the Honduran President guaranteeing adequate safety for Salvadorans still living in Honduras.
El Salvador suffered around 900 mainly civilian casualties, Honduras lost 250 combat troops, and more than 2000 civilians in the 4 days of combat.
Cheers, The Fat Man
Fat Lad Sports 