“I seem to remember my father telling me that a football match in South America once kick-started a war,” writes Darren Telford. “Is this true, and if so, how did it happen?” It’s almost true, Darren. The ‘Football War’ was fought by Central American countries El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. In fact, it also went by the name of the ‘100 Hours’ War’, and in reality there were a host of issues at the root of the troubles. Migration, trade and simmering land disputes on the border all conspired to spark social unrest between the two, but it wasn’t until the best-of-three World Cup qualifiers in 1969 that the tipping point was reached. The first game – a 1-0 win for Honduras – in Tegucigalpa witnessed disturbances but things deteriorated significantly come the second in San Salvador: visiting Honduran players, according to Ryszard Kapuściński’s 1978 book Wojna Futbolowa, endured a sleepless night before the game, with rotten eggs, dead rats and stinking rags all tossed through the broken windows of their hotel; Honduran fans were brutalised at the game, and the country’s flag and national anthem were also mocked. “Under such conditions the players from Tegucigalpa did not, understandably,… Read full this story
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