1969 On the evening of July 14, El Salvador's air force launched a surprise attack on its neighboring Honduras. When the news came out, it shocked the whole world, and the cause of this war turned out to be a small football.
The failure of the first game caused riots among the fans.
1June 1969, 13 World Cup qualifiers were in full swing. The two teams in the same group, El Salvador and Honduras, need to win two of the three games to get tickets to Mexico. At that time, the relationship between the two countries was tense because of border disputes and illegal immigration. El Salvador has a population of 3 million, of which 270,000 live in Honduras to make a living, which has caused great social pressure to Honduras, which has a population of only 2.7 million. It was in this tense atmosphere that the contest between the two sides was launched on the court.
On June 8, the first match between the two sides was held at the Galbo Stadium in Tegucigalpa, Honduran capital. The day before the game, in order to help the domestic team win, a large number of Honduran fans gathered in front of the hotel where the visiting team stayed, throwing stones at the hotel, setting off firecrackers and honking car horns. The loud noise made the visiting team members unable to sleep at all. As a result, in the game, the El Salvador team was completely out of shape, but the home team won with 1: 0 amid the cheers of tens of thousands of spectators.
Faced with this result, 40,000 Salvadoran fans who crossed the border to Honduras to watch the game were furious, and some emotional people even rushed into the stadium to beat Honduran players and Uruguayan referees. The scene was in chaos. The Honduran authorities dispatched a large number of military police and used high-pressure taps to disperse the fighting fans, which finally quelled the riots. Unexpectedly, while Honduras was celebrating, another tragedy happened again.
18-year-old girl's suicide intensifies the contradiction.
It turned out that just after the game, a Salvadoran girl of 18 couldn't accept the fact that her team lost, and she shot herself. The death of this girl made Salvadorans sad and angry, and the Salvadoran media began to crusade against the Honduran government. At the funeral for the girl, the President and ministers of El Salvador walked behind the coffin covered with the national flag, and the Salvadoran national team members who participated in the competition followed the government officials. The honor guard is the presidential guard, and the whole burial process is also broadcast live to the whole country through TV. The scene is very tragic. A newspaper wrote: "This young girl can't bear to see her motherland kneeling in front of others."
After the funeral, countless Salvadoran fans gathered in front of the presidential palace as "victims", claiming that if the government did not come forward to solve the problem, they would sit in and demonstrate. Under pressure, the government of El Salvador ordered the transfer of troops to the border, and the government of Honduras, not to be outdone, also stationed troops on the border. However, through the urgent mediation of FIFA, the two sides promised that the second match would be held in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, as originally planned.
The visiting team players entered the stadium in armored vehicles.
On June 13, the Honduran national team flew to San Salvador. The visiting team got off the plane and found emotional fans everywhere. The players hurried into the hotel under the protection of Salvadoran police. The next day, when the frightened Honduras team went out for training, it was reviled and personally attacked by Salvadoran fans again, and finally returned to the hotel safely under the escort of the police. At noon that day, tens of thousands of Salvadoran fans poured into the streets and began a more fanatical parade. They surrounded the hotel where the Honduras team stayed. Some people threw rotten eggs and dead mice into the rooms of Honduran players, and some even shouted "Go in and beat the hateful Honduran team."
On June 15, the "White Flower" Stadium, which can accommodate nearly 70,000 people, was packed. During the game, crazy Salvadoran fans sang the national anthem and waved the banner of "Kick the Honduran football team to death". Honduras entered by armored vehicle. Even so, it was attacked by Salvadoran fans such as rotten eggs, toads and even dead frogs. When the flag-raising ceremony was held as usual, the flag of Honduras was replaced by a rag and its national anthem was insulted. At 4 pm, the game started with the screams of Salvadoran fans. To the excitement of the home team fans, El Salvador finally defeated its opponent 3-0. But after the game, the fans of both sides clashed again. More than 65,438+000 cars were burned, dozens of Honduran fans who watched the game with the team were injured and hospitalized, and two others were killed alive.
Under the mediation of relevant parties, the two sides played the third match in Mexico City, and El Salvador narrowly beat Honduras 3-2 to win the World Cup ticket. Faced with this result, Honduras became angry and began to persecute Salvadorans living in the country. Many innocent people were killed. Soon, Honduras expelled another 20,000 Salvadoran nationals and declared the Salvadoran ambassador to Honduras "persona non grata". On June 27th, the two countries broke off diplomatic relations.
In the face of the behavior of the Honduran government, El Salvador has also begun to take corresponding measures. On July 14, El Salvador launched a surprise attack, which kicked off the "football war". Four days later, El Salvador agreed to sign a ceasefire agreement under the mediation of the international community. Although this dramatic war only lasted 100 hour, the death toll on both sides still reached 3000, and the economic loss exceeded 50 million dollars. Due to the armed conflict between the two countries, the Central American market was paralyzed, trade between the two sides was completely interrupted, border conflicts continued, and air flights were grounded for ten years. (Global Times)