Wars change the course of history and football has not remained immune to it. Too many historical reviews turn the beautiful sport into the protagonist of the great world wars. On the morning of July 1, 1916, at the height of World War I, we will experience the bloodiest fights in history and, although it may seem incredible, there was also football in that Great War. It is about the bloody battle of the Somme, planned as if it were a Champions League final. Captain Nevill imagined the battlefield as a soccer field: Balls, counterattacks and even a sign that read: “No referee.” In fact, one of the balls from this bloody clash is still preserved in the Surrey Regiment museum and the other in Dover Castle, in the Royal Museum of the Princess of Wales. The Daily Mail would dedicate the following poem to Captain Neville’s battalion: “They drive the ball, for them the fear of death is an empty expression. Faithful to the land that gave birth to them, the East Surrey team played the game.”
“Christmas Truce”
But, if there is a historical event in which football has emerged as a symbol of peace in the midst of war, it has been the so-called “Christmas Miracle or Truce”, which occurred two years before the Battle of Somme. On December 25, 1914, Allied and German soldiers agreed to a small ceasefire that led to a soccer match during World War I. It happened in 1914 in a small town in Belgium, 20km from the border with France, embedded in the western front of the First World War. Five months had passed since the war began and a major Allied offensive had just taken place that ended with a large number of deaths.
On Christmas Eve, Princess Mary of the United Kingdom and Kaiser Alexander of Germany sent Christmas letters and gifts to the soldiers. On December 24, from the German trench they began to sing Silent Night while drinking and one of them left his tent and planted one of the trees given by the Kaiser in the ground. The soldiers of the allied side saw it and understood that the time had come to stop the war, so during that night drinks and food were exchanged.
This truce did not sit very well and from the headquarters they asked for responsibilities to know who had participated, as they considered it disloyal. However, the soldiers continued with the truce. Hundreds of dead were buried on Christmas Day and, in the afternoon, a Scotsman came out with a ball in his hand. The match between the Germans and the Allies ended with a 3-2 victory for the Germans.
This football break nicknamed the “Christmas Truce” It has been considered a historical milestone that would never be repeated but the reality is that it had its replica in the Spanish Civil War. In Malaga, the soccer ball also jumped over the fences and united the two sides for a few minutes.
Vélez’s match
At the end of 1936 The rebellious troops, commanded by Lieutenant General Queipo de Llano, advanced towards Malaga. On the other side, various columns of militiamen formed. On December 24, tired of the boredom of the trenches, the young people who defended the front between Vélez and Zafarraya decided to propose to their adversaries, among whom there were former neighbors and even some brothers, a Christmas truce. To celebrate the pact they agreed to play a soccer match. This is how, after 12 in the morning on the 25th, the two Spains played a match on an esplanade near their positions.
As reported Juan Jesús hurtado Navarrete in his blog “Velezedario”, a group of CNT militants, almost children, came out of their defenses to propose a truce. To celebrate, the men of Second Lieutenant Melgares, the majority of a regiment that moved between Vélez and Zafarraya, proposed, even at the risk of being accused of high treason, to play a match against those on the enemy side in one of the few free and clear areas there were.
The meeting, which was played on December 25th around 12:00 in the morning. It lasted approximately an hour and, according to some witnesses – such as the Vélez CF midfielder, Antonio Castaños Monleón – this match ended with a Republican victory: by 3 goals to 2.. And according to historians of the time, it would not be the only time that the opposing sides in the Civil War changed the trenches for two sticks as a rag ball goal. Some reviews show that a match was played on the Guadarrama front that ended with a heavy Franco defeat (7-1). There was another Christmas truce on Mount Kalamua but there they only exchanged wine, letters and cigarettes.
There is no history without football nor football without history…
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