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More Than Just a Game: The Mixed Impact of Football in Honduras
Published: October 6, 2010
However, try telling that to football fans in Honduras. Football has caused both tragedy and healing in the Central American country over the past 40 years. Both war and peace; both preceding and preventing violence; football is more than just a game there.
In 1969, the so-called "Soccer War" broke out between Honduras and El Salvador. Whilst the war was not solely a result of the football, the match between the two nations was widely seen as the catalyst for the outbreak of violence.
Honduras travelled to El Salvador in a playoff for a place in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, but went down to a 3-0 defeat. A bad-tempered game, where the Hondurans were subjected to abuse, xenophobia, and outright hatred, just as the Salvadorans had been in the reverse fixture back in Honduras. Indeed, the Honduran coach, Mario Griffin, commented that “we are awfully lucky that we lost.”
Honduran fans were attacked in San Salvador, both before and after the match, and the Honduran flag and national anthem were insulted, leading to extremely strained relations between the two sets of fans and populations. Salvadorans residents in Honduras were killed or attacked, including several vice consuls, and thousands began fleeing the country. Less than a month after the match, the Salvadoran army and air force launched a full-scale attack on Honduras. The war lasted only four days until a cease-fire agreement was reached, but a final peace settlement would not come for over a decade.
Over 3,000 people were dead—the majority being Honduran civilians—whilst thousands more were left homeless. The economic situation in Honduras was affected by the expulsion of almost 100,000...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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