Colombia's El Dorado: Football vs Civil War
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast hosted by Rob Draper and Jonathan Wilson.
Today we bring you the fascinating story of the El Dorado League in 1940s Colombia. Discover how the government, amid a brutal civil war and the assassination of liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, turned to football to pacify an unsettled population. Learn about the league's extraordinary formation, iconic players like Alfredo Di Stefano and Adolfo Pedernera, and the league's ultimate collapse. Join us for an in-depth look at an astonishing chapter in football history and its lasting impact.
00:00 The Role of Football in Political Control
01:43 The Assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
03:33 The Aftermath and Civil Unrest
14:12 The Rise of the El Dorado League
22:51 The Impact of Global Events on Colombian Football
29:29 Player Transfers and Union Arguments
30:36 Colombian Football's Golden Era Begins
32:30 The Arrival of International Stars
34:59 Challenges and Discontent Among Players
38:32 The Decline of the El Dorado League
50:00 Political Turmoil and Football's Role
54:54 Legacy and Modern Parallels
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Football was the only thing that the government could think of to control and calm the population after the death of Daitan. |
| 0:13.4 | There was nothing else that came close. |
| 0:17.1 | Well, welcome to It Was What It Was with me, Rob Drape, and with Jonathan Wilson. |
| 0:21.4 | And today we're focusing on an astonishing episode in football history, which I suspect many people will know little about or even nothing about it. |
| 0:29.0 | It's a rebel breakaway Colombian league in the 1940s. |
| 0:33.8 | You probably haven't heard of that. |
| 0:35.6 | It's called the El Dorado League. |
| 0:37.3 | It's absolutely fascinating for many reasons. And that quote came from Guillermo Royz Bonilla, who is Colombia's most respected football historian and explaining how the government had to set up this league because there was such a brutal civil war going on at the time in Colombia. |
| 0:54.5 | There's so much resonance for today's events. |
| 0:57.6 | I mean, we look at the Saudi League that's been set up at a moment |
| 1:00.9 | and how that's a threat to the European leagues and the big players. |
| 1:03.7 | And we'll talk later about how there's many political reasons behind that. |
| 1:07.6 | But one of them is sort of to pacify the local population. And I think, |
| 1:12.2 | Jonathan, this is broadly similar, isn't it? You're going to explain to us how this comes about, |
| 1:17.8 | how it starts with the assassination of this very popular centre-left leader of the opposition, |
| 1:25.1 | Jorge Alisair, Gattan Yeah, it's a really |
| 1:29.0 | The league itself is astonishing |
| 1:31.4 | Just the range of players |
| 1:33.8 | able to pull together |
| 1:34.6 | Given the time |
| 1:37.0 | This incredibly cosmopolitan league |
| 1:38.7 | The reasons for it |
... |
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