The Football War: How Soccer Started an International Conflict

The Football War, also called the Hundred Hours’ War, was a brief military conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. As the name suggests, this war was ignited by the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, in which both countries faced off in three matches, ultimately resulting in El Salvador declaring war on Honduras. Sports can often become polarizing, and can serve as a kickstarter to an international conflict between two already already feuding countries.

Some Background

It’s not like the Football War was a war entirely over football, the match was simply the last straw between two disputing countries. If you’re a geography buff, you might know that Honduras and El Salvador are two adjacent countries in Central America. While Honduras a significantly larger by size, El Salvador had around a million more people. Farmers in El Salvador simply didn’t have enough land to make a sustainable living, so hundreds of thousands immigrated to their neighboring country, where more land could be farmed on. However, pressures from the United Fruit Company and other organizations forced Honduras President Oswaldo López Arellano to evict many Salvadorans, many of whom had been living on the land for generations. This lead to boiling tensions between the two countries, a flame ignited by the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, in which both countries faced off in three matches.

The Football War

The first match was set in Honduras’ capital city. The night before the game, Hondurans gathered outside the Salvadoran team’s hotel, making loud noise and taunting them. The day after, the exhausted Salvadoran team lost 0 - 1 to Honduras. Disturbingly, a young fan who shot herself at the sight of her team losing was glorified into a martyr, serving to further anger the Salvadoran people. Fabs brought pictures of her to the next game in El Salvador, where it was their turn to harass the Honduran team throughout the night. Honduras lost decisively 0 - 3 as fans literally battled in the stands. In response to the loss, Honduran locals increased their hostility towards Salvadoran settlers, in come cases burning their houses and throwing them off their land. The final match in Mexico proved to be the breaking point, as a 3 - 2 victory by El Salvador lead to Honduras being knocked out of the tournament. As attacks on Salvadoran settlers increased from this loss, El Salvador cut all diplomatic tied with Honduras and declared war.

The actual war was very brief. Initial success from the Salvadoran army following air attacks on key targets like the Toncontin Airport was halted as the army approached the Honduran capital. After a few days, the Un successfully pressured El Salvador to withdraw its troops and end the war. The Football War mainly serves as an example of how sports can bring international conflicts to the forefront with its international coverage and viewership, as both El Salvador and Honduras still suffer from the economic and social cost of the war.