I am bringing you this article from a bench outside the Parque Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The year is 1893 and the weather is appropriately magnificent for the final championship football match to be played this year, a riveting contest between the teams of Lomas and their opponents, Flores. I am reporting this during the half time break as the teams have run in to their respective changing rooms for their obligatory pep talk. Whilst the players hear their own half time report, here are my thoughts for you on the events of the first half.
Inside the cricket ground where the match is being played, a relatively large crowd have gathered to watch the two teams compete and there is a collective buzz of anticipation as the enthusiasm grows for this spectacle. This game has attracted a lot of attention, from both the members of the club and passers-by. Due to there being a large population of Englishmen currently living in the city, I did feel momentarily as though I were back at home in England, watching a local derby match between two top sides with fierce supporters urging their teams on. I fitted in well in this reasonably sized crowd, surrounded predominately by affluent groups of English, members of the club or wealthy Argentinian men.
The first half was a rather pleasant affair. The teams were respectful and few fouls were committed, but when they were, an equally respectful manner was extended to the officials. Amongst the crowd, a slightly hostile atmosphere was mounting when, moments before the half time whistle, two men to my left began fiercely contesting the last free-kick decision. Regardless, Lomas are currently 1 goal up having scored a clinical goal from range, worked well from the back, and finally flying into the back of the net after a convincing strike from the captain. Possession between each team has been largely equal although Flores were looking dangerous in the last couple of minutes of the first half, making way for what will undoubtedly be an exhilarating second half.
In front of me, contrasting entirely with the events inside the stadium, I see 8 young boys imitating the game that is happening just a few hundred metres away. The boys are playing with a non-traditional 4-a-side set up; one side marked by their shirts tied around their arms and the others fully dressed. Inside the cricket ground, the area of play has been marked professionally with solid white lines, corner flags, and goals, whereas these young boys are able to enjoy the same format of play but instead, using 2 pairs of their school shoes at each end of their pitch to signify the goalposts. As I am analysing this set up, a superb goal is scored by one of the smallest of the boys. He has dribbled the ball between the shoes after intricately running past the 4 defenders, and his goal is met with a huge cheer from his teammates. As I am watching the slightly misshapen, rubber ball bounce away towards the trees, I notice another boy, perhaps a year or two younger than the ones playing, watching intently. A questionable tackle just after kick-off sends the ball flying in his direction. Without a thought, he rushes forward and, with one graceful movement, convincingly kicks it back. This boy is clearly a stranger to the group, however the previous goal-scorer shouted and gestured for him to join them. He approached them, cautiously at first, had a word with one of the boys and then removed his shirt so he could tie it around his upper arm. Despite this causing an odd number, the group did not hesitate in welcoming him into the game. He quickly got stuck in, any trace of the previous uncertainty had vanished, and he began shouting and laughing along with the others.
The noise from inside the cricket ground snaps me out of my revelry and I reluctantly realise that I must return to the game of football in the stadium behind me. Standing up from my spot, a simple question enters my mind, as the boys continue to gleefully and skilfully kick the ball about – is this game so different from the championship one? To me, the answer is no. From the polarity of the situations of the games that I have spectated today I can conclude that football is one for the people. It is called the beautiful game for a reason, not because of the skill involved but because football is a game of inclusivity. And that should be celebrated.
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Between the years of 1850-1900, South America saw a vast change in the role of sport within its society, with a shift away from indigenous sporting traditions, to sport in a more professional sense. Through the article, we encounter two very different versions of football, one, a planned, exclusive match, with European rules in play, and the other a spontaneous, un-officiated game by a group of young boys, more about enjoyment than competition. Throughout this essay we will discover whether the introduction of football to Argentina helped create a sense of togetherness, or on the contrary, induced social segregation and resentment between native Argentinians and the British. We will also question football’s role in Argentinian society and whether the fact that clubs were predominantly, ‘organisations dominated by influential men,’ significantly affected the social settings in which the game was played.
Due to the, ‘significant economic and social contrasts between rich and poor people, sport and physical activity occupy an important space in lower society,’ partially explaining why the introduction of modern day football has become a strong part of Argentinian culture. The idea that, ‘football clubs helped create a sense of neighbourhood identity,’ is one that is supported by Horowitz, who argues that sport is for, ‘not only recreation and leisure, it can facilitate social inclusion.’ This is demonstrated in the article when watching the game between the local boys who welcome the stranger to play without a second thought. I have argued here that social inclusion through football is most successfully applied through the teaching of the game in schools where it can be spread by children, as done in Argentina when, ‘Alexander Watson Hutton…founded the English High School in 1884 where football was an essential part of the curriculum.’ The compulsory teaching of football in schools, gave it the opportunity to be made a universal game, as children, naturally, are less selective than adults when it comes to inclusion and participation, making it easier for the game to be consequently spread across a wider range of social classes. Spaaij also suggests that through participation in sport, whether as a player or an onlooker, you acquire an ‘emotional energy’ and collective identity, as seen when analysing the crowd watching the championship match, where the atmosphere is described to be that of a collective buzz of anticipation. As, ‘expatriate railway workers helped to spread the game further inland during a period of extensive railway construction,’ we can also infer that these men were able to help spread their more European, standardised version of the game amongst adult communities, perhaps helping to bridge some of the gap between the classes, as we know that, ‘the first football in Argentina was played by visiting seamen,’ not men of the upper-class. This therefore makes it clear that, whilst football was adapted to later be a professional game by the elite who saw economic profit in it, initially, it was played casually, in the same way as demonstrated by the young boys.
However, despite arguing that football was intended to be a universal game that didn’t show any racial or cultural prejudices, it has also been suggested that it actually, ‘reactivates local, national and international antagonisms.’ This is a concept that we have seen throughout history, particularly when looking at the period of transition from native sports to modern day sport, where, even up until the late 19th century, ‘indigenous athleticism was showcased in contradiction to…western sports.’ As, ‘fair play and the amateur ethos of the gentleman were favoured by the bourgeois English clubs,’ this discriminated against the lower classes or native Argentinians whose culture, naturally, differed from that of Europe, demonstrated by the popular sports of bullfighting or cock-fighting, which were perhaps seen as more vulgar by the western elite. Some historians argue that, ‘friction arose as the integration of other Argentines into some traditionally English/Anglo-Argentine clubs were resisted,’ therefore suggesting that, as well as the British, the Creole Argentinians had been separated from main-stream national culture and race, for their part in the creation of the elitist clubs. Aside from race and nationality, we must also consider that, while sport can create a feeling of togetherness between people, it also, ‘produces its own violence-generating dynamics,’ something portrayed through the two men in the crowd of the championship match disagreeing over an official’s decision. Furthermore, it has been suggested that just being present in a sporting venue can cause ethnic, religious or cultural conflicts, an idea also supported by Sodo who claims that during a football match the, ‘espectadores generaron…violencia física o de palabra.’
We can therefore conclude that whilst football has had both negative and positive impacts on the culture and society of Argentina during the period of 1850-1900, it cannot be denied that it has become a major part of Argentina’s national identity, despite its initial European origins. Although, ‘involvement from the social elite was evident from the very beginning,’ the game itself was introduced and spread with the intention for it to be enjoyed by all, as the physical sport itself can be seen to emotionally connect us. The use of schools and children to help the game grow supports this, as children are naturally less inclined to show initial prejudices towards other children from different backgrounds or classes, meaning that, as long as everyone knows the rules and main objective of the game, anyone can be included. Despite this effort, tension was nevertheless created towards the late 19th century when the semi-professional, paid members clubs were introduced, such as the teams playing in the championship match, making the game appear almost exclusive to the English or wealthy Argentinian men. Whilst this, naturally caused a slight social divide, the example of the young boys’ game reinforces the idea that no matter how it is adapted, the game is fundamentally one that can be played by all and consequently became, and will remain an important part of Argentinian culture.