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The Football War (Spanish: guerra del fútbol), also known as the Soccer War or the 100 Hour War, was a brief military conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969.

Existing tensions between the two countries coincided with rioting during a 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifier, hence its nickname. The war began on 14 July 1969 when the Salvadoran military launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States (OAS) negotiated a cease-fire on the night of 18 July. The war, while brief, had major consequences for both countries and was a major factor in starting the Salvadoran Civil War a decade later.

Although the nickname "Football War" implies that the conflict was due to a football match, the causes of the war went much deeper. The roots were issues over land reform in Honduras and immigration and demographic problems in El Salvador. Honduras has more than five times the area of neighboring El Salvador, but in 1969 the population of El Salvador (3.5 million) was 34.6% larger than that of Honduras (2.6 million). By 1969, more than 300,000 Salvadorans were living in Honduras, making up more than 10% of Honduras's population. Then later in 1969 the Honduran president decided against the renewal of the 1967 Bilateral Treaty on Immigration, causing the deportation of even more Salvadorans.

On 26 June 1969, the night before the play-off match in Mexico City, which El Salvador would win 3–2 after extra time, El Salvador dissolved all diplomatic ties with Honduras, stating that around 12,000 Salvadorans had been forced to flee Honduras in the days following the second match.

The war began on 14 July 1969 at around 6 PM, when the FAS attacked Honduran airfields using P-51 Mustangs, as well as C-47 Skytrains and civilian aircraft hastily converted into bombers. On 15 July, the FAH commenced bombings using their own fleet of World War II-era aircraft, mainly consisting of F4U Corsairs. On 16 July, in the only major battle of the war, Salvadoran troops led by Colonel Mario ("El Diablo") Velázquez Jandres, reached and surrounded Nueva Ocotepeque, pressing defenses in what Time Magazine described as a "narrow defile". The Football War was the last conflict in which piston-engined fighters fought each other.

Soon after the start of the war, the OAS held a special session, organizing a seven nation committee to oversee negotiations and calling for a cease-fire.

El Salvador suffered up to 700 casualties throughout the course of the war, including 107 deaths. The resulting social unrest was one of the causes of the Salvadoran Civil War, which followed approximately a decade later in which 70,000 to 80,000 died and a further 8,000 more disappeared.

After initiating the war, El Salvador was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup, losing their first three matches against the Soviet, Mexican, and Belgian teams. The launch of the Apollo 11 mission, two days into the war on 16 July, took center stage in the news, and there were still Salvadoran troops in Honduras at the time of the moon landing on 20 July. At a meeting in March 2012 President Porfirio Lobo of Honduras, President Otto Pérez of Guatemala, and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua all agreed that the Gulf of Fonseca would be designated as a peace zone. The commission did not meet after December, and in March 2013 stiff letters threatening military action were exchanged between Honduras and El Salvador. Scarcity and Survival in Central America: Ecological Origins of the Football War.

Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Salvador/Honduras: Nicaragua intervening), International Court of Justice case registry Application for Revision of the Judgment of 11 September 1992 in the Case concerning the Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Salvador/Honduras: Nicaragua intervening) (El Salvador v. El Salvador: The Football Match that Ignited War – Football Eras Magazine

Quick Facts

• Although the nickname "Football War" implies that the conflict was due to a football match, the causes of the war went much deeper.
• The war began on 14 July 1969 when the Salvadoran military launched an attack against Honduras.
• The war, while brief, had major consequences for both countries and was a major factor in starting the Salvadoran Civil War a decade later.
• El Salvador: The Football Match that Ignited War – Football Eras Magazine
• The Organization of American States (OAS) negotiated a cease-fire on the night of 18 July.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Football War". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.