Der Wechsel

How Argentina’s Love for Football Changed Football in Argentina

 “Argentineans cannot live without football.” (1)

 The above quote is without a doubt true. Their cultural love of the game has created not only some of the best players to ever grace the game, such as, Messi, Maradona, Riquelme, Zanetti, and Diego Simeone, but they have arguably the biggest rivalry in world football, the Superclasico. The colossal event takes place in Buenos Aires, between Boca Juniors and River Plate, and is listed #1 on the Observer’s “50 Sports Things You Must Do Before You Die” list. (2) What really intrigues me, though, is how their passion for the sport has morphed the game into a truly unique source of strength and power in the world of football.

 The Argentinean’s passion and the sport’s influence go beyond the 90 minutes on the pitch. For example, one Argentinean fan created the Church of Maradona, which has over 120,000 members and includes a rule that you have to name your first son, Diego.  Another example is the former President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, apparently moved the kick-off time of a football match in order to turn peoples’ attention away from a televised show, of an investigative journalist that opposed Kirchner, to that football match (3). People would then have to make the choice to either watch the journalist’s show or football, since they were happening at the same time. Yes, you heard that right.  But with those examples aside, what I really want to talk about is the extraordinary relationship between the football clubs and the “Barras Bravas,” the organized collections of fans, which are run by the clubs’ Ultras.

 The Barras Bravas were created as an answer to the strong and imposing atmosphere within the stadiums in Argentina. Many years ago the stadiums were filled with intimidation, loud persuasion, and a general sense that, if you were not playing in front of your own fans, you weren’t going to get a result. To counter the huge influence of the home crowd, clubs paid a collection of their own fans to attend away matches in order to fight back with their own passion.  However, now with the huge amount of football-related deaths, due to clashes involving police and fans in varying circumstances within the stadiums, away fans have now been banned from attending matches as of 2013. 

 Now with the ban in full effect, one could argue the result of the clubs trying to battle the home field advantage factor; clubs have now created an even bigger force than what was intended in the first place. The power and the operations of the Barras Bravas “cream hundreds of thousands of pounds from the game every year through illegal rackets, money laundering and narcotics, underpinned by police and state corruption, and supported by the clubs and players themselves.” It goes further. Not only do the most senior Barras Bravas apparently “receive up to 30% of transfer fees when a player leaves and up to 20% of some players' paychecks,” (4) they can get out of jail time if they call a judge, and can get board members on the club removed.  When asked about what power they actually have, Co-Leaders, Rafael Di Zeo and Mauro Martin, of the Barras Bravas group “La 12” said, “Whatever we set out to do. Because in this country football is engraved in everything. Politics, sports, everything is related….When it comes to decide who to vote for, our word is important…yes, on a national level. We can destabilize an entire country if we want.” (5) In addition, Ronny Blaschke, a sports journalist, said in an interview for Deutsche Welle: “…the ‘Barrabravas’ are the most serious case of hooliganism in the whole world.” (6) Pure and simple the Barras Bravas have an astonishing amount of power for a group under the umbrella of ‘hooliganism.’

 As briefly mention above, their power also seems to include them inadvertently controlling their clubs. A journalist in a Vice Sports piece said, “Fans manage football now, they have all the economic power. The power that the fans have here, is the ability to influence the club’s leaders, the president, the board members, and committee…and if they want, get rid of all of them.” (5) There is even a video on YouTube that shows a high figure in one of the Barras Bravas groups intimidate and tell a senior club official what he should do. (You can watch the video here)

 The first thing that comes to my mind when looking into all of this is: The power is with the people, in Argentina.  The original intention of these groups isn’t their focus anymore because these groups have grown beyond something the clubs couldn’t have fathomed in the first place. Now, the clubs and the country must live with this situation as they feel they cannot get rid of them and/or manage the groups again. This new status quo, which was fostered out of love and a desire for control over the success on the field, has been turned on its head and has changed football in Argentina forever.

Steven Scott

Der Wechsel 

 Photo is linked from wikipedia

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