Argentina Football History

Registration: 2009-11-25 GzWorld Level: Gamezer Team:

Football is the most popular sport in Argentina, it has more registered players than any other sport (2,658,811 total players, 331,811 of which are registered and 2,327,000 unregistered. There are 3,377 clubs and 37,161 officials[1]) and it is the most popular recreational sport played from childhood into old age[2]. The percentage of Argentines that declare allegiance to an Argentine football club is about 90%[3].

Football was introduced to Argentina in the latter half of the 19th century by the British immigrants in Buenos Aires. The first Argentine league was contested in 1891, making it one of the oldest leagues outside Great Britain[4]. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) was formed in 1893 and is the eighth oldest in the world.

Argentina is one of the seven countries to have won the football World Cup having done so in 1978 and 1986. They have also won the continental tournament Copa América on fourteen occasions. At youth level the Argentina Olympic football team has won two Gold Medals (2004 and 2008) and the Argentina Under-20 team has won a record six FIFA U-20 World Cups. At club level Argentine teams have won the most Intercontinental Cups (9) and the most Copa Libertadores (21).

In Women's football there has been a national women's league in Argentine since 1991, the Campeonato de Fútbol Feminino. Argentina women's team qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time in 2007.

Argentina were world champions in football for the visually impaired in 1998.

In Futsal Argentina were FIFUSA/AMF Futsal World Cup champions in 1994[5], they also compete in the FIFA code of Futsal, where they finished 3rd in the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Cup, they won the FIFA Futsal Copa América in 2003.

Argentina also compete in the Beach Football World Cup, their best finish was 3rd in 2001. A new league, the The Argentine Association Football League was formed February 21, 1893 which eventually became the Argentine Football Association. In these early days of football in Argentina nearly all of the players and officials were expatriate Britons or of British extraction and the oldest football clubs in Argentina like Rosario Central, Newell's Old Boys and Quilmes Athletic Club were all founded by British expatriates.

The most successful and admired team of this early period was Alumni founded by graduates and students of Watson Hutton's English High School. Like all of the early clubs it was mainly made up of British players.

Towards the end of the 19th Century the game became increasingly popular amongst other European immigrants especially the Italians.

Most of the early clubs had a policy of excluding the local creole population. The backlash against this policy at Quilmes Athletic Club resulted in the formation of Argentino de Quilmes in 1899, the first of many Argentine clubs for Argentine players. The name Argentino or Argentinos has remained popular in Argentine football. The most famous team with the name is Argentinos Juniors who won the Copa Libertadores in 1985.

The early years of the 20th Century saw a huge number of new clubs formed, by 1907 there were over 300 teams in Argentina[13]. Most of the major clubs were created around this period; they played in the national amateur tournament or in local championships. By this time matches had a considerable attendance and as the popularity of the game increased the British influence on the game waned. In 1911 Alumni folded and by 1912 the Association was renamed in Spanish as the Asociación Argentina de Football, although the tradition of giving the clubs English names continued for many years.

During the early 20th Century many new football leagues were started in cities across Argentina as the popularity of the game spread out from Greater Buenos Aires, these include Rosario (1905), Córdoba (1912), Santa Fe (1913), Tucumán (1919) San Luis (1920) and Salta (1921).

The first official match played by the Argentina national team took place on May 16, 1901 against Uruguay resulted in a 3-2 win for Argentina.[14] This game marked the beginning of the Argentina and Uruguay football rivalry.

The first trophy won by Argentina was the Copa Lipton in 1905. They won their first tournament in 1910 (Copa Centenario de la Revolución de Mayo) which was contested between Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile.

In 1916 Argentina competed in the first Copa América which was won by Uruguay, they won the tournament for the first time in 1921 and have gone on to win it a total of 14 times, which is a record they share with Uruguay.

In 1928 Argentina competed at the 1928 Olympics where they finished runners up to Uruguay. Two years later they competed in the first FIFA World Cup again finishing runners up to Uruguay. Following two seasons of disrupted play due to mass cancellation and suspension of matches and the mid-season withdrawal of teams in the 1929[15] and 1930,[16] 18 teams decided to form a breakaway professional league for the 1931 season.[17] The amateur league carried on in parallel until it folded in 1934 with many of the teams joining the new professional second division[18] The creation of the professional league helped curb the exodus of Argentine talent to high paying European football clubs. The 1934 FIFA World Cup Italian national team championship side featured Oriundo in the squad composed of Argentine born players such as Raimundo Orsi, Enrique Guaita, and Luis Monti who also played for Argentina in the 1930 FIFA World Cup.

In 1964 Independiente became the first Argentine club to win the Copa Libertadores, Argentine clubs have won the competition a total of 22 times, Brazil clubs have the second most with 13.[19]

In 1967 Racing Club became the first Argentine team to win the Intercontinental Cup. Argentine clubs have won the tournament a record nine times.[20]

In 1978 Argentina hosted the FIFA World Cup, they beat Holland 3-1 After extra time to win their first World Cup. They won their second World Cup 1986.

In 1979 a young Diego Maradona was part of the Argentina under-20 team that won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup. Argentina have gone on to win a record six U-20 World Cups.[21]

In 2004 the Argentina Olympic football team won Gold at the Athens Olympic games, they defended their title in 2008 to become the first team to defend the Olympic football title since Hungary in 1968.