![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
Abstract
Greater Buenos Aires (GBA) has 69 soccer stadiums, more than any other city. It is also home to ritualized, violent conflicts between soccer fans, and between fans and police. In a stark contrast to stadiums in Europe, Asia and North America, every soccer stadium in GBA has protective fences lining the fields, most topped with razor wire. The institutional structure of soccer in Argentina and the multitude of actors associated with the stadiums in GBA complicate the management and control of the urban environment as well as the stadiums themselves. By examining the roles of soccer clubs, fans, police, government and the media in the control and operation of soccer stadiums, this essay explores the connections between soccer, society, conflict and urban governance in Argentina’s largest city.
Notes
1. Mangan, Pleasure, Profit and Proselytism; Arbena, Sport and Society; Giulianotti, Football; Archetti, Masculinidades.
2. Holt, ‘Football’.
4. Sebreli, La Era del Futbol; Frydenberg, ‘Espacio urbana’.
5. Scher and Palomino, Futbol, 24; Chepenekas, Sabado; Mason, Passion of the People?, 2.
6. Taylor, The Beautiful Game.
7. For a perfunctory history of the early years of soccer in Argentina, see Mason, Passion of the People?, 1–8. Similar to what happened in Rio de Janeiro, Argentine teams played against visiting English teams, which served to heighten nationalist sentiments in relation to soccer and stadiums. In 1905, 10,000 people gathered in the Palermo stadium of Sociedad Sportiva to watch the Alumni team of Buenos Aires play against Nottingham Forest of England. This was by far the largest crowd to ever watch a sporting event in South America.
8. Scher and Palomino, Futbol, 21–2.
9. For instance, at the 2003 Copa Libertadores final between Santos and Boca Juniors, the five buses carrying the visiting Santos fans were escorted into the stadium parking lot by a squadron of police cars.
10. Argentine stadiums can be roughly divided into two sections, the popular and the platea. The former is less expensive and people tend to stand on concrete or wooden bleachers for the action, sitting during half time (the equivalent of the English terrace before Taylor). The platea typically has seats and an older more sedate crowd that sits during the action, standing at half time to stretch.
11. Gaffney, Temples of the Earthbound Gods.
13. I am not including an examination of players or managers in this discussion, though they do warrant attention.
14. Duke and Crolley, ‘Futbol, Politicians and the People’, 106.
15. Sabugo, ‘Las Canchas: Monumentos Bohemios’.
16. See www.clarin.com.ar, 4 December 2003.
17. Duke and Crolley, ‘Futbol, Politicians and the People’, 101.
18. Boca Juniors made a tour of Europe in the 1930s, winning most of their games. It was also common in this era for English teams to tour Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro to compete against local teams.
19. Alabarces, Peligro de Gol, 215.
20. Sabugo, ‘Las Canchas: Monumentos Bohemios’, 60.
21. ‘Barrabrava’ refers both to the individual member of the group and the group itself, an odd semantic quirk that merges the individual with the group, as if to explain their actions in a collective light. Barrabravas is used to refer to two or more individuals or groups.
22. Sebreli, ‘Las Canchas: Monumentos Bohemios’, 33.
23. Romero, Muerte en la cancha.
24. Rodgers, ‘Youth Gangs and Violence’.
25. Binello et al., ‘Mujeres y fútbol’, 42.
26. Duke and Crolley, ‘Fútbol, Politicians and the People’, 109.
27. One of the boasts of Boca Junior’s barrabrava ‘El Doce’ is that hardly any of its members have finished primary school.
28. The de‐territorialization of the city refers to a process in which the city as a whole becomes unbounded. The increased fluidity of formerly fixed boundaries allows for more freedom of association of goods and people that has the effect of reducing the historically strong associations with place.
29. Alabarces, Peligro de Gol, 218.
30. Sebreli, ‘Las Canchas: Monumentos Bohemios’, 35.
31. Gandara, ‘Las Voces del Fútbol’.
32. The website www.barrasbravas.com.ar is dedicated to the histories, relationships and culture of barrabrava throughout Argentina and is an excellent reference for those who wish to know more about this world.
33. See www.clarin.com.ar, 22 September 2003.
34. Duke and Crolley, ‘Futbol, Politicians and the People’, 100.
35. Scher and Palomino, Futbol, 61.
36. Ibid., 147–75; Mason, Passion of the People?, 66–76; Taylor, The Beautiful Game, 59–75; Gulianotti, Football, 100–106; Arbena, ‘Generales and Goles’.
37. The barrabravas of Argentina are known around the soccer world. The transmission of soccer games from Buenos Aires to Europe is one of the primary mechanisms through which stadium behaviours are diffused amongst fan groups. The innovations of the Argentine fans frequently manifest themselves in Italian or Spanish stadiums the following week. A well‐known anecdote is that some Mexican soccer teams hired members of Argentine barrabravas to travel to Mexico to organize their fans. The Argentines were incredulous that the teams did not provide financial assistance to their fan groups. An increasingly common element of Mexican stadiums is the long vertical banners that demarcate space for the barrabrava. In Mexico, however, the crowd is much more sedate and violence among fans is a rarity.
38. Binello et al., ‘Mujeres y Futbol’, 36–7.
39. Giulianotti, Football, 97.
40. Alabarces, Futbologicas, 82.