Football and the Boca Juniors

One of the great passions of Argentines, besides politics, is soccer. To many in Buenos Aires, this is synonymous with the Club Atletico Boca Juniors, the most famous soccer club in the country. The fabled Argentine player Diego Maradona, called the greatest player of the 20th century by FIFA, played for this club, as have many other greats.

The home field of the Boca Juniors is La Bomboniere, a 65,000 seat stadium built in 1944. Located in La Boca, one of the poorest parts of Buenos Aires, this stadium is completely painted in yellow and blue, the team colours. It has few creature comforts (think of Hamilton's Ivor Wynne Stadium X 3). We attended a game on a cool but sunny Sunday afternoon. Boca was playing Huricán, a team several places below them in the standings.

The fanatical supporters of the club call themselves the 12th man, intimidating opponents as they yell, jump up and down, and sing club songs loudly throughout the entire game. The game is punctuated by rolls of toilet paper, and showers of torn-up programs that rain down on the field. The supporters of opposing teams have to be cordoned off in one small section of the stadium, separated by barbed wire and a line of police from the Boca fans. The Huricán fans tried to cheer their team on, but were largely drowned out by the Boca fans. Fortunately the Boca Juniors won handily, 2-0, so everyone was happy when they left.

Team rivalries can be taken to extreme lengths. The Boca fans hold a special hatred for their cross-town rivals, the fans of Club Atletico Rio Plata (River). Their team colours are red and white, so the Coca Cola signs at La Bomboniere are white on a black background to avoid the hated red and white colour scheme. The depths of this rivalry were reached in the early 1990's. On a day when the River team defeated Boca 2-0, two River fans were shot dead. "We made it a 2-2 draw" said a Boca fan on national TV.