The

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

of football in the country of El Salvador is run by the

Salvadoran Football Association The Salvadoran Football Federation ( es, Federación Salvadoreña de Fútbol or ) is the official governing football organization in El Salvador and is in charge of the El Salvador national football team, and El Salvador national beach soccer tea ...

. The association administers the national football team, as well as the

Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador The ''Primera División'' of the (''Professional Football League''), more commonly known as ''La Liga Mayor'' or ''La Primera'', is the top professional football league in El Salvador. It was established in 1969, and in 2011 had 10 clubs. Init ...

, the top level in its league system. Football is the most popular sport in the country.

National team

El Salvador qualified for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

twice, in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

and 1982. On both occasions the team was eliminated in the first round after losing all three matches. A qualifying match against Honduras for the 1970 tournament was so hotly contested that it was the spark that brought a state of war between El Salvador and Honduras. The conflict became known as the

Football War The Football War ( es, La guerra del fútbol; colloquial: Soccer War), also known as the Hundred Hours' War or 100 Hour War, was a brief military conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. Existing tensions between the two countr ...

. The 1982 tournament included a 10-1 mauling from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

that provided the most goals in a game in the history of the finals as well as equalling the record for winning margin. Outside of the World Cup, El Salvador competes regularly at the

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

and the

CONCACAF Nations League The CONCACAF Nations League ( es, Liga de Naciones CONCACAF, french: Ligue des Nations de la CONCACAF) is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF, the ...

. Its sole international triumph came in a regional competition, the 1943 CCCF Championship.

League system

The main league competition in El Salvador is the

. It is fed into by the Segunda División de Fútbol Salvadoreño which in turn is fed into by the

Tercera Division de Fútbol Salvadoreño Tercera Division de Fútbol Salvadoreño is the third division of football in El Salvador. The champion is promoted to the Segunda División de El Salvador. The team with the lowest points in each group will be demoted to the amateur league. St ...

. The most successful team has been

C.D. FAS Club Deportivo Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos, commonly known as FAS (pronounced "fas"), is a professional Salvadoran football club based in Santa Ana. It competes in Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador, the country's top professiona ...

with 18 league titles, followed by C.D. Águila with 14. The top Salvadorean clubs also participate in the CONCACAF Champions League, a competition won by

Alianza F.C. Alianza Fútbol Club, also known simply as Alianza, is a football club based in San Salvador, El Salvador. Founded in 1958, Alianza was almost immediately successful, winning its first championships in the 1966 and 1967 Salvadoran seasons. Even ...

in 1967 and C.D. Águila in 1976. Alianza and

C.D. Platense Municipal Zacatecoluca Club Deportivo Platense Municipal Zacatecoluca, usually abbreviated to just ''Platense'', is a El Salvador, Salvadoran association football, football club based in Zacatecoluca, the departmental capital city of La Paz Province, they currently pl ...

have also won the defunct

Copa Interclubes UNCAF The UNCAF Club Tournament was an annual international football competition held in the UNCAF region (Central America). The competition was open to the leading domestic club teams in the region. The winners of each national league qualified automa ...

once each.

Football stadiums in El Salvador

References

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