There was heavy rain in Mexico City on 29th June 1969, as the national teams of El Salvador and Honduras lined up against each other in the final qualifying playoff for qualification to the 1970 World Cup. It was the third of three games, a match forced by Honduras’ victory in the first leg, and El Salvador’s in the second, and held in a neutral venue. The first half was a relatively calm affair, considering the violence that had taken place in the previous two games, and the sides played out a 2-2 draw, forcing extra time. With 101 minutes on the clock, Mauricio Rodriguez scored what would ultimately be the winner for El Salvador, and the players celebrated they qualification. By the time the teams had left the pitch, their countries were at war.
The problems between the two countries obviously ran much deeper than football. El Salvador had a population about 50% higher than Honduras, with around one fifth of the land. In both countries, most of the farmland was owned by huge corporations (mostly American), meaning the limited land was even more restricted. But the situation was theoretically better in Honduras, and the extensive cultural similarities encouraged mass migration from El Salvador, to the extent that some 20% of the population of Honduras was Salvadoran by 1969. When Honduran’s started to fight for their land, they were supported by the government, and El Salvador made diplomatic complains about the lack of protection their own citizens received from their neighbours.
Tensions grew, and in the run up to their World Cup qualification playoff the atmosphere reached fever pitch. Posters were put up and passed around by Honduran nationalists, declaring that Salvadorans were “a thief, a drunkard, a lecher, crook or ruffian”, and warning them “don’t stay in Honduras. Get out or expect punishment.” The entire county became a tinder box, and that box just needed a spark to set it alight. That spark came at the beginning of June, when Honduran authorities started “forcibly removing” Salvadoran families, which involved a soldier leading a family at gunpoint to the border.
Six days after these expulsions started, El Salvador made the trip to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa for the first playoff. The hosts won 1-0, but the match was overshadowed by the level of violence in the stands, and then in the streets, between rival fans. Two weeks later, they met in the return leg, with even more violence, to set up a final, third playoff match. While to two football teams played an prepared, relations between the two countries deteriorated. On the day of the third playoff, but before kick-off, the two severed diplomatic ties.
A few thousand fans made the journey, and on eight minutes saw Juan Ramon Martinez drill home from the edge of the box to give El Salvador the lead. Jose Enrique Cardona, Honduras’ star player, equalised eleven minutes later with a bicycle kick. Back home, the propaganda machines were already warming up when Martinez got his and El Salvador’s second in the 28th minute. By the time Honduras equalised again, early in the second half, El Salvador was preparing their air force. P51 Mustangs – Second World War fighters – were supplemented by a fleet of Cessna light aircraft which had been modified so that pilots could tip the plane to one side and drop bombs out of an open door. To say these were not advanced militaries would be an understatement.
As extra time became inevitable, the Salvadoran players started reminding each other of their compatriots suffering in Honduras, telling each other “Tenemos que Ganar” – “we have to win”. And when Rodriguez picked up the ball and turned it home 11 minutes into extra time, that was exactly what they had done.
Soon after, a roar of aircraft engines could be heard over Honduras, and then air raid sirens as bombs fell from the modified Cessnas. A Polish journalist reported seeing graffiti in Tegucigalpa declaring that “nobody beats Honduras” and “we will avenge 3-0” in the build up to the violence.
The war lasted just a few days, before a ceasefire was called. But it was enough. 3000 people, mostly Hondurans, died, and as many as 300,000 were displaced. Tensions have existed between the two nations ever since. And while there were much deeper causes than sport, it is remembered today as The Football War.
