"Football is a beautiful game, and it should always remain that way. There is no room for savagery including vandalism, racism and violence. It is also forbidden to use football for political objectives by any mean." For more than a century, that's what international and continental football associations have been trying to promote through emblems such as "My game is fair play" and "No to racism” and sanctioning the offenders.
However, despite all those efforts, one doesn't have to dig too deep in history to find plenty of incidents where "the beautiful game" turned into a blood bath from the medieval ages. The horror occurred in Belgium (Heysel Stadium, 1985, 39 died and 600 injuries), England (Hillsborough stadium, 1989, 96 died and 766 injuries), and more recently in Egypt (Port Said Stadium, 2012, 74 killed and more than 500 injuries) are only a few drops in the bloody ocean of hooliganism.
But have you ever heard of a football game supposedly kicking off a war between two countries? No, this is not an exaggeration! A real war with weapons, aircrafts, and thousands of casualties. It would be later known as "the football war" or "the hundred hour’s war". So what happened back then? Is football really responsible of taking the lives of over 3000 people?
One year before the 1970’s FIFA World Cup, national teams across the globe, as always had to compete against each other throughout tiresome qualifications, aiming to secure a place in the most prestigious competition. Honduras and El Salvador were no exceptions when they met in a two-legged qualifier in June, 1969. Both teams had never played in the world cup tournament before; and eliminating the opponent is the only way to keep the hopes and dreams alive.
The first game was played on the 8th of June, 1969, in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. The previous night, Honduran fans surrounded their rival team's hotel, making all kinds of threats and noise in order to scare and prevent them from sleeping. The Salvadorian government also reported raping, murders and expulsion against their citizens without an intervention from Honduran authorities. The game ended 1-0 for the locals.
A week later, the second game was held in the Salvadoran capital of San Salvador this time. Seeking "revenge" on their neighbours, Salvadorans never held back on neither the pitch nor streets. They won the return match 3-0, with even greater violence and crimes than the previous game in Honduras.
The score was equal with one victory each. According to the rules of that time, a third decisive game in neutral lands was needed to determine a winner, and Mexico was selected to host the "more than just a game" on the 27th of June 1969. Of course, politicians and rulers of both countries couldn't miss such a chance to take the tension to another whole level, talking about "the nation's pride being on stake" and how winning a mere football game became a "national duty".
A few hours before the long awaited match, the situation worsened to the boiling point when El Salvador decided to severe all diplomatic ties with Honduras due to the later expelling more than 11500 Salvadorans immigrants, forcing them back to their original country, only days after their 3-0 defeat. Salvador claimed also that the neighbour didn't bother to care about their safety, not even showing any intentions to punish the assaulters.
Later that day, the game was held in the Azteca Stadium, Mexico City. The tense atmosphere surrounded the crowd. The players of both teams were fully aware of the importance of the event; what happens on the pitch will probably determine the fate of both countries. After more than 90 minutes of play, the full-time result was once again equal on the scoreboard, showing 2-2. This time, an extra 30 minutes of play might break the tie; if not, penalty shootouts are the last resort.
In the 11th minute of the extra time, El Salvador's player Mauricio Rodriguez scored the third goal for his country. With only so little time left, the Honduran team couldn't do much; and indeed, Rodriguez's goal led El Salvador to a final 3-2 victory. In the following days, clashes on the border intensified; and within less than three weeks, the two neighbours were at war. It started when El Salvador gave orders to invade and bomb Honduras on the 14th of July.
For the next four days, the struggle was bloody. The Salvadoran troops invaded deep inside Honduras, while the air force bombed targets mostly in Tegucigalpa, including Toncontin airport, slowing the reaction of Hondurans army. However, it didn't take them long to respond; in the 16th of July, many targets inside El Salvador were under attack such as Llopango airport and oil facilities. Huge pillars of smoke arose in the Salvadoran sky as oil depots burned to ashes.
The Organisation of American States (OAS) played a significant role in ending the madness. On 18 July, they were able to arrange a ceasefire. After tiresome efforts and pressures, the OAS had also managed to convince El Salvador of withdrawing its troops from Honduras on the second of July 1969. In return, the Honduran president promised to guarantee the safety of the remaining Salvadorans in his country, and to pay compensations for the victims; a decision that was never accepted by Honduran citizens, who took it as admitting defeat. The situation was very complicated to say the least, the war itself lasted no more than 100 hours, but it took more than a decade to settle a final peace.
The aftermath of the "football war" is rather insane. In a period of 4 days, 2100 Hondurans and 900 Salvadorans lost their lives; the vast majority of them were civilians. An even bigger number of people had to leave their homes and were displaced by the fight. Not to mention the millions of dollars as material damages in both countries.
Those stats reflect very well how cruel that war was, but they also pose serious questions: What caused all that madness? Is football really the only reason to start such a deadly and destructive war?
The answer in short is: Of course not!
Football was, and still is, accused of starting a frantic war. However, that's very far from the truth! The roots of that conflict were way deeper than a superficial reason such as losing or winning a match. In fact, the real causes go back to the beginning of the 20th century, almost 70 years before "the one hundred hours' war". Factors such as border disputes, new land reform laws, immigration and population growth were perfect to simmer the situation over time.
Despite being neighbours, demography in both Central American countries were quite the opposite. Honduras, a very vast country, had a population of approximately 1.1 million in 1940. On the other side, El Salvador, five times smaller, had in the same year an estimated population of 1.7 million. Thinking about taking advantage of the vast Honduran farmland available, and encouraged by the land owners elite in El Salvador, poor Salvadoran farmers started mass immigration to Honduras since the beginning of the 1900's. As a result, by 1969, more than 300.000 Salvadorans had already settled down there, representing around 20% of the overall population of Honduras.
The constant growing number of immigrating farmers made Honduran landowners and big corporations such as the US fruit companies unhappy with the situation, and in an attempt to protect their property rights, they united their efforts against those immigrants, by bringing pressure to bear on the Honduran government. That plan worked, and by 1967, the majority of farmland occupied and used illegally by Salvadorans, were taken by the lately enforced land reform law.
Honduras decided also to expel thousands of those immigrants, and sent them back to their home country, including long term residents. One doesn't need a sharp mind to conclude what happened next; naturally, the already struggling El Salvador wasn't very welcoming as the government couldn't handle the large number of migrants returning to the small, crowded country; leaving them in the claws of extreme misery.
As if that wasn't enough tension, the media and press decided to electrify the public opinion, talking about the humiliation Salvadorans faced in Honduras. To top it all, the two nations were having sea and land border disputes over the Gulf of Fonseca; at that point, it was clear for everyone that a military action is just a matter of time.
Nevertheless, many people still mindlessly blame football as a cause of that war. However, in reality, football was nothing but a trigger; or more precisely, a cover for politicians to justify an already planned war. In central and south America, football is a life passion, and 3 games in less than a month against a potential enemy were the ultimate chance to enforce war without much opposition.
50 years after the critical match, Mauricio Rodriguez, who scored the winning goal, said in an interview:" The war would have happened with or without that goal." He added: "What I am sure of is that the authorities and politicians made use of our sports victory to glorify El Salvador's image."
The consequences of that war had affected both countries for long terms directly: the borders were closed and trade had stopped for decades. A full peace treaty was signed after 11 years of the tragedy. But for El Salvador, the worst effect is yet to come: due to the return of thousands of deported Salvadorans, the economy failed miserably and the social situation was hopeless. The result was a civil war a decade later, claiming the lives of 70.000 people during 12 years.
As for El Salvador's participation in 1970's world cup, they were eliminated in the group stage; they lost all their games against Belgium (3-0), Mexico (4-0) and the Soviet Union (2-0). With zero goals scored and nine balls in their nets, Salvadorans had to wait 12 years to participate in 1982's WC for the second and last time so far.
when you're an athlete during a game you feel also like on war :)