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"Associating violence with Argentine football is hardly original, and although it isn’t as constant as cultural stereotyping would have us believe, at this moment in time it’s really unavoidable" |
Cliché is rarely a good way to start an article, never mind a debut one. So I was a little dismayed when I realised that my first column on the Argentine league had to be dominated by the darker side of the game. Associating violence with Argentine football is hardly original, and although it isn’t as constant as cultural stereotyping would have us believe, at this moment in time it’s really unavoidable.
This season’s Apertura (‘opening’) championship has been plagued by hooliganism and controversy. On the second weekend, promoted Godoy Cruz were playing their first top-flight home match when the hooligan section (or barra brava) of their fans rushed to the turnstiles, angry at not having been given match tickets by the club’s board (as is the custom in a country where some fans, as we shall see, have rather too much power). The match had to be called off after just 16 minutes, and a trend was set. The high (or low) point of the season’s controversy - so far - came when Boca Juniors, on a roll under the now Argentina coach Alfio Basile, and trying to draw level with the all-time Argentine league record of 13 straight wins, visited struggling Gimnasia de La Plata. Despite being battered in the first half, and picking up a number of bookings, the home side were awarded a penalty on the stroke of half-time, and led 1-0 at the break. During that break, their president, Juan José Muñoz, visited the referee’s dressing room and - according to said referee - suggested something along the lines of him perhaps not leaving the stadium in one piece if he carried on booking Gimnasia players. The ref, Daniel Giménez, promptly called the second half off, and only this week will the match finally be concluded.
The reason it’s taken so long is that in total, six matches have had to be rescheduled in this championship. Only one of those involved no naughtiness (Banfield were due to host Racing a week and a half ago but the floodlights failed), and two of the games involved Boca. Football violence has become the vogue subject in the Argentine media since Boca’s match at Racing scheduled for two and a half weeks ago. The clubs share one of Argentina’s biggest rivalries, and the short trip from La Boca to Avellaneda, where Racing reside, takes you out of the country’s capital district (Capital Federal) and into Buenos Aires Province - and a different police force and match-security jurisdiction. Racing, the only club in Argentina who are a registered company, having been resurrected after the economic crash of 2001 bankrupted them, banned their own hooligan element from their stadium earlier this year, and announced in the week before the game that Boca’s own hooligans, La Doce (‘the twelfth man’) wouldn’t be allowed in. The case went to court, and a judge ruled on a technicality that La Doce - lead by Rafael Di Zeo, who despite having no official connections is regarded by some as among the most powerful men in Argentine football - had to be allowed into the match, albeit under heavy guard. At this point, the Province’s security organisation, CoProSeDe, stated that if those were the judge’s terms, they would refuse to police the match. It eventually took place - minus La Doce - last Wednesday, and ended in a 0-0 draw, but not before Boca’s barra brava had also been banned from the stadium of Arsenal de Sarandí.
The power wielded by the hooligan groups has often led to problems, and whenever it does the same talk comes up - Argentine football will clean up its act, violence in stadia will end, the hooligans won’t be allowed to win. The results of past campaigns don’t encourage optimism. Nor does the attitude of the chief of security in Capital Federal, Mario Gallina, whose jurisdiction includes both River Plate and Boca, the country’s two biggest clubs, and who seems to be of the opinion that it’s up to clubs to ask the security forces to keep hooligans out. In fairness to him, that’s what both Racing and Arsenal requested of CoProSeDe, who have since stated that it’s the clubs’ choice to grant the ‘right of admission’. All the same, such a stance hardly carries an air of determination on the part of the authorities to stamp the problem out. If clubs are reluctant to turn their hooligans away - and they are, because they give a lot of support, and perhaps because directors are scared of the consequences - the security forces should surely take the initiative. Still, some progress has been made - a few years ago, CoProSeDe didn’t even exist. The fact that the papers have been gripped by this is an even greater shame because the race for the title looks like going all the way. Boca - with that half-game in hand until the Gimnasia match is concluded on Wednesday night - lead by one point from both River and Estudiantes de La Plata, who, inspired by Seba Verón (it turns out he’s not rubbish after all), are playing far above expectations. They’ll have to travel to their crucial clash against River without their talisman on Sunday, since he was sent off at the weekend, but with only a month of the Apertura left (the Argentine season is split into two championships), they’ll be aware that anything could still happen. River fans, meanwhile, are celebrating the return of their own living legend after Ariel Ortega, who’d taken time off to sort his head out, scored a spectacular goal on Sunday in the 5-0 derby demolition of San Lorenzo. Taking a pass just inside the visitors’ half, he deceived his man with his first touch, took one more and, at pace, chipped a beautiful lob from the right-hand corner of the penalty box, over the stranded ’keeper and into the far top corner. It grabbed the back pages the following day, and perhaps gave football a victory - however temporary - over the darker forces just out of shot.
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Primera División Argentina - Apertura 2006 Scores (3rd - 5th November): Argentinos Juniors 1-1 Banfield |
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