Are You Ready for some Football?!

At the Football stadium.

I am writing this on the plane from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. We had a busy last 2 days…shopping, sight seeing and watching a soccer (football) game.

The evening of our first day we were chatting over dinner about what we wanted to do during the next 2 days here in Buenos Aires and decided we were both keen to experience a soccer game. Our research determined that you can’t really buy tickets and do it yourself as they are all either seasons tickets (the seats) or standing room only, which wasn’t necessarily very safe area of the stadium. Luckily we came across a company that picks you up from your hotel and takes you into the game/babysits you while there (ie. makes sure you don’t do anything to start a riot or anger the fanatical crowds) They teach you about the sport and deliver you back to your hotel afterwards. We contacted them that night, heard back right away and there just happened to be a match the following night so we booked our tickets.

They sometimes take groups up to 15 people but we were very lucky again, as it was just us, another girl our age and our guide Andy.

Andy grew up in Buenos Aires and is a huge soccer fan. His favourite team was the home team that night, so he was very passionate about the game! We had a great experience and gained a lot of insight to the art of surviving Argentinean soccer stadiums!

Empty stadium before the crowds filtered in.

Argentineans take their football VERY seriously….they are not just fans, they are super crazy fanatical fans. Some interesting info behind the scenes of the football world here...there are 20 teams that play in the primero league, which we watched.

The home team was the Velez Sarsfield and the away team was the Racing club. Andy says that all the fighting and violence that the games are notorious for is due to a group of “hooligans” as he called them, as it was the closest English word available to use.  He says it's a mafia/gang like system where these groups of roughly 300 people run by a leader pretty much control the stadiums, receiving commissions from concession sells ect. with threats for violence/retribution should someone contest them. The hooligans come to see the game, lead the songs/cheers but they also come to fight and cause trouble…and the rival teams gangs fight each other and they fight within themselves.

At the stadium, all the seats on either side are season ticket holders. On either end are standing room only seats…the fans for one team is on one side and the other teams fans on the other. The fan standing room areas on both sides are completely surrounded by a 30ft fence topped with barbed wire and the away team's fans are always taken out first under police guard away from the stadium before the rest are let out to avoid fighting. There is no alcohol allowed within 500 meters of the stadium also to reduce the fighting and every single person entering get individually searched by police. There were literally line ups of police in full riot gear at every entrance you had to pass through. The referees were also escorted onto the field by 4 police to protect them from fans that may be angry and try to assault them or throw things at them.




The referee escorts.

Standing only home team fan section.

About a month ago, there was a huge fight amongst one of the gangs at this particular stadium and several people were stabbed and killed. Andy said it was a fight over a challenge in leadership. The stadium decided in an attempt to curb further violence and as a result of this incident none of the away teams fans are allowed to enter the stadium. The away teams side was completely empty.
Andy also warned us that cheering for the away team in anyway whatsoever was absolutely forbidden...he warned us that if we accidently cheer for the wrong team we would have to leave the stadium.

Away team fan side...empty!

The energy in there was something you would have to see to believe. The standing room only area was packed and there was an entire marching band that played song after song literally for 2 straight hours throughout the entire game...the band, the singing etc. are all orchestrated and encouraged by the gangs. They rope off an area where they all set up their stuff, carry flags and keep the crowds singing strong. The entire crowd sung along, jumping, dancing, pumping their arms…when the home team got close to scoring, the songs got louder, faster, more energetic and the entire stadium joined in. It was super cool.
Did I mention it was pouring rain the entire time...it did nothing to dampen anyone's spirits.

Unfortunately, the home team didn’t win and the away team scored the only goal in the last 5 minutes. The crowd around us literally lost their minds, grown men were having full blown temper tantrums, people were storming out, and we learned some colourful Spanish swear words (courtesy of the man in front of us… hijo de puta!)