The Football War is the catchy nickname that has been given to the 1969 war that broke out between the Central American countries of Honduras and El Salvador. Although the name implies that the conflict was due to football, the causes for the war go much deeper than just sports. The roots of this alarming disagreement turned war were issues over land reform and immigration problems. Honduras is more than five times the size of neighboring El Salvador, even though in 1969, El Salvador had a population that was more than double that of Honduras. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Salvadorans had begun migrating to Honduras in large numbers. These immigrants made the journey to a new land in hopes of decent jobs and escaping their oppressive government. By 1969, more than 350,000 Salvadorans were living in Honduras. These Salvadorans now made up twenty percent of the Honduran peasant population (Acker, 93). Meanwhile, by the 1960s Hondurans began to cry out for land reform as well.
These existing tensions between the two countries were inflamed by rioting during the second North-American qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. The "Football" War (La guerra del fútbol, in Spanish), also known as the 100-hours War, was a six-day war on July 14, 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American states negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on July 20, with the Salvadoran troops withdrawn in early August.
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