The football war took place on July 14 1969 and was sparked off by a football match between El Salvador and Honduras. The reason that the war started was not only because of the football match but because of other tensions between the countries too. Honduras has a much bigger area than El Salvador but still had 40% less of a population so Salvadoran people started to migrate to Honduras. The new migrants took up 10% of the Honduras population. In Honduras much of the land was currently owned by the United Fruit Company which led to a land reform law being put in place in 1962. The law was fully enforced in 1967 and gave the central government and other districts much of the land that was inhabited by the illegal El Salvador migrants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The many Salvadoran laborers that got expelled from the country led to multiple conflicts between Honduras and El Salvador. All of the tensions sparked during the 1970 fifa cup world qualifier led to the El Salvador military to launch an attack on Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a ceasefire on the night of July 18. Salvadoran troops were withdrawn in early august. Even though the war only lasted 4 days it still led to negative effects on both countries. Over 100 people on the Salvadoran side died in the procces and over 500 were injured. On the Honduras side just under 100 people died and more than 60 people were injured too. The football war was also a major factor which led to the El Salvador civil war a year later.