Page 25 - Ashton & Backwell FC v Camberley Town FA Vase 240922

The Football War

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 28 minute. By the
th
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.
Enjoy the game.
Martyn Green, The Untold Game
Find more at TheUntoldGame.co.uk or on social media, @TheUntoldGame