Football, clientelism and corruption in Argentina: an anthropological inquiry

Abstract

Since the fall of the last military regime in 1983, Argentina has enjoyed a succession of democratic governments. While this created an atmosphere of optimism where progress became an attainable goal, there is also much uncertainty around many pressing social issues. In Argentina, the world of football serves as a microcosm where many of these issues can be observed. Among them we find clientelist networks that involve club officials, politicians, the police and groups of organized fans. In recent years, these networks have led to an increase in cases of violence and corruption tied to political and economic interests. The spread of violence in Argentine football is encouraged by social leaders through corrupt political and economic arrangements that benefit all parties involved. Within this particular context, and in spite of the role played by non-governmental organizations, viable solutions remain elusive.

Notes

1. Duke and Crolley, ‘Fútbol, Politicians and the People’, 93.

2. Eisenstadt and Lemarchand, Political Clientelism, Patronage and Development; Eisenstadt and Roniger, Patrons, Clients, and Friends; Fox, ‘The Difficult Transition from Clientelism to Citizenship’; Gellner and Waterbury, Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies; Gledhill, Power and its Disguises; Hopkin, ‘Conceptualizing Political Clientelism’; Kettering, ‘The Historical Development of Political Clientelism’; Lopes, ‘Partisanship and Political Clientelism in Portugal (1983–93)’; Roudakova, ‘Media-political Clientelism’; Wolf, Religious Regimes and State-formation; Wolf, Pathways of power.

3. Bull and Newell, ‘New Avenues in the Study of Political Corruption’; Goldstein, ‘How Corruption Kills’; Grondona, La corrupción; Haller and Shore, Corruption; Hopkin, ‘Political Parties, Political Corruption, and the Economic Theory of Democracy’; Saba and Manzetti, ‘Privatization in Argentina’.

4. Archetti, Masculinities.

5. Dal Lago and De Biasi, ‘Italian Football Fans’; Spaaij, ‘Football Hooliganism as a Transnational Phenomenon’; van der Brug, ‘Football Hooliganism in the Netherlands’.

6. Bairner and Shirlow, ‘Territory, Politics and Soccer Fandom in Northern Ireland and Sweden’; Gordon and Helal, ‘The Crisis of Brazilian Football: Perspectives for the Twenty-first Century’; Oliven and Damo, Fútbol y cultura.

7. Alabarces, Crónicas del aguante; Aragón, Los trapos se ganan en combate; Archetti and Romero, ‘Death and Violence in Argentinian Football’; Castillo, Todo pasa; Gaffney, Temples of the Earthbound Gods; Grabia, La Doce.

8. Roudakova, ‘Media-political Clientelism’, 42.

9. Gay in Auyero, ‘The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina’, 57.

10. Auyero, ‘From the Client’s Point(s) of View’; Auyero, ‘The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina’; Golden, ‘Electoral Connections’; Hallin and Papathanassopoulos, ‘Political Clientelism and the Media’; Lopes, ‘Partisanship and Political Clientelism in Portugal (1983–93)’; Magazine, ‘You Can Buy a Player’s Legs, But Not His Heart’; Roudakova, ‘Media–Political Clientelism’; Sissener, ‘Anthropological Perspectives on Corruption’.

11. Auyero, ‘From the Client’s Point(s) of View’, 305, emphasis in original.

12. Roudakova, ‘Media–Political Clientelism’, 42.

13. Sissener, ‘Anthropological Perspectives on Corruption’, 1.

14. Sissener, ‘Anthropological Perspectives on Corruption’.

15. Sissener, ‘Anthropological Perspectives on Corruption’, 1–2.

16. Lancaster and Montinola, ‘Toward a Methodology for the Comparative Study of Political Corruption’.

17. Gupta in Haller and Shore, Corruption: Anthropological Perspectives, 188.

18. Sissener, ‘Anthropological Perspectives on Corruption’, 4.

19. Sissener, ‘Anthropological Perspectives on Corruption’, 18.

20. Auyero, ‘The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina’.

21. Auyero, Clientelismo político.

22. Auyero, Routine Politics and Violence in Argentina, 60.

23. Paradiso, ‘The Social, Political, and Economic Causes of Violence in Argentine Soccer’.

24. Grabia, La Doce.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Aragón, Los trapos se ganan en combate.

28. Gaffney, ‘Stadiums and Society in Twenty-first Century Buenos Aires’.

29. Auyero, Clientelismo político.

30. Grabia, La Doce.

31. Presumably because Racing is one of the ‘big five’. The club has a very large following.

32. In 1999, the club was declared bankrupt. It was managed by Blanquiceleste S.A. (a corporation) for eight years, until it became a civil association again in 2008. Blanquiceleste S.A. was insolvent and therefore unable to pay the club’s debts. After the corporation went bankrupt in 2008, Argentina’s ex-president Néstor Kirchner developed a plan to save Racing by assigning the club’s management to a group of political friends (see Varela 2008), who cancelled the debts. The idea was to allow club members to elect Racing’s president after dealing with the financial problems.

33. Guareschi, ‘Don Julio’, my translation.

34. Julio Ricardo Grondona, son of Julio Humberto, is the president of Arsenal, a club located in Sarandí, just south of the city of Buenos Aires. Arsenal was founded in 1957 by Julio Humberto Grondona (The Godfather) and his brother, among others. The godfather became the club’s first president and the stadium is named after him.

35. At the time of the interview, Humberto Grondona, son of Julio Humberto, was the coach of Talleres, a club from the city of Córdoba that was playing in the second division. Since then, the team has been relegated to the Torneo Argentino A, in the third division.

36. Perimbelli, ‘La mafia del fútbol, intacta’.

37. http://www.salvemosalfutbol.org/.

38. Alan Schlenker was one of the leaders of River’s barra brava.

39. Typical Argentine barbecue.

40. Auyero, Routine Politics and Violence in Argentina.

41. Pellerano played for Atlanta and was later transferred to another club.

42. Gaffney, ‘Stadiums and Society in Twenty-first Century Buenos Aires’.

43. MacLachlan, Argentina: What Went Wrong, 197.

44. Ibid., 160.

45. ‘Fans’ in Italian.

46. Aragón, Los trapos se ganan en combate, 30, my translation.

47. Subsecretaría de Seguridad en Espectáculos Futbolísticos or ‘Office of Security at Football Events’.

48. In Grabia, ‘El problema más grave de barras está en la Argentina’, my translation.

49. Giulianotti, Football.