Your guide to attending a football match in Buenos Aires

Even though Argentina is a Catholic country, the real religion in Argentina is football, this passionate 22 player game is probably THE most important aspect of Argentinean culture and life in Buenos Aires. Every Sunday millions of people go to the stadium to see their favorite teams or they at least watch the game on TV. If you switch the TV on in Argentina on a Sunday (and actually on any other day of the week!) it is very likely that you´ll see mainly football. The phenomenon is most popular in the capital city, Buenos Aires, but the rest of the country shares the same passion.

In Buenos Aires there are 7 football teams that belong to the first division of Argentina, most of them are teams with a lot of history and are recognized on a global level; Boca Juniors, River Plate, Vélez Sarsfield, Huracan and San Lorenzo to mention just a few names.

Going to see a football game in Buenos Aires is an obligatory experience that you wont forget, the excitement of a good football game and the passion of the players who give everything they´ve got during the 90 minutes of the game is indeed a good reason, but it´s also a cultural experience. The real show at a football game in Buenos Aires is the way that the home crowd sings throughout the entire game from the moment the game begins until it ends, regardless of the result of the game, the weather conditions or the players´ performance, the Argentinean fans are very dedicated and will always follow and cheer their favorite team no matter what.

Every Argentinean football team has its own barra brava, which is a group of the most dedicated fans who follow the team wherever the matches are played; in Argentina, South America and even around the world. The barra brava are the die-hard fans who entertain the crowd and cheer the players, they usually carry drums and trumpets that convert the entire stadium into a carnival for the 90 minutes. The fans usually sing songs for their team, and the lyrics are often romantic, including phrases like "you´ll always be in my heart," "I will always follow you" etc. The fans repeat each song for about ten minutes in order to help the newcomers understand the words and get involved in the atmosphere,so you won´t be left out!

Being a football fan in Argentina is something that runs in the blood and usually in the family, it is very common to see the whole family from the grandmother right down to the grandson going to watch their favorite team together and if for some reason a child decides to rebel and become a fan of another team it can cause family arguments, a divorce between married couples and other tragic consequences. You shouldn´t make fun of a football team in front of its fans, even as a joke, the consequences can be irreversible as football is a very serious matter in Argentina.

The Argentinean league has 20 teams and unlike any other major football league in world it is divided in two: the first half, the Apertura (opening) Tournament is played from August through to late December, and the second half, the Clausura (closing) Tournament is played between the end of January and the end of June. Each tournament consists of 19 games and has its own champion.

Football teams and stadiums in Buenos Aires

Boca Juniors
Boca Juniors is the biggest team in Argentina and is well known around the world, it´s Diego Maradona´s favorite team and Diego himself played for Boca on 2 different occasions, today the most known players of Boca are Riquelme and Palermo.

Boca Juniors´ home stadium is La Bombonera, which is located in La Boca in Brandsen street 805, Buenos Aires. The stadium has a 60 thousand capacity and it´s usually full for Boca´s games. The most dedicated Boca Juniors´ fans are known as "la 12", and the Xeneizes (the Genoese) because the team was founded by the Italian immigrants (mostly Genoese) who populated La Boca neighborhood in the early 20th century .

The Boca Juniors stadium is called La Bombonera because of its shape which is similar to a box of chocolates; the special aspect of the stadium´s structure is the great acoustics which mean the 60 thousand fans sound like there are even more of them! An anecdote... the Boca Juniors shirts used to be pink, then they had thin black-and-white vertical stripes on them until 1906 when Boca played against another team that used these colors, therefore they were forced to changed their shirt and so they decided to adopt the colors of the flag of the first ship that entered the Boca port, a ship that came from Sweden to Buenos Aires.

River Plate
Although Boca is currently the most known team in Argentinean football, in fact the team with the longest history in Argentina is River Plate , who won the championship 43 times, 10 times more than Boca. River Plate is known as the team of the wealthy people in the city and the fans are known as the Millonarios (millionaires) in Buenos Aires. The jerseys of River Plate are white with a red diagonal on the front. River didn´t play very well in the last two cups, but the most known players are Gallardo, also known as El Muñeco (the doll, probably for his pretty face)

The home stadium of River Plate "El Monumental" is located in the north of the city in the Nuñez neighborhood, on Av. Pte. Figueroa Alcorta 7597, Buenos Aires. The stadium is the biggest in Argentina and also the most modern with capacity for 77 thousand people, the stadium was built for the Football World Cup, which was held in Argentina in 1978 (Argentina won that World cup).

Vélez Sarsfield
The 3rd team in Buenos Aires and the winner of the last Clausura Tournament in July 2009, the home stadium is on the western border of Buenos Aires in the neighborhood of Liniers and the capacity of the stadium is 50 thousand people.

Whatever team you decide to support, a football match is one of the top attractions in Buenos Aires for tourists who want to feel and understand the real passion of Argentina. Every Argentinean team and its passionate fans will give you a cultural experience you´ll never forget and lots of good memories to take home from your vacation in Buenos Aires.

Book a football tour in Buenos Aires, visit our football catalog and calendar of upcoming games and enjoy a safe and fun football experience during your vacation in Buenos Aires.

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