The streets of the city of Lanús colored in a climate of celebration; Fans arrived on dozens of buses, hugging and reliving a family experience after a long wait. After exchanging chants and provocations, the audience then exploded in applause when Ángel Di María entered the field.
For 12 years, Argentine fans could not share the stadium with their opponents at the first division games. The presence of visitors was banned in 2013, after the death of a fan in a confrontation with the police.
On the 19th, AFA (the country’s soccer association) began a testing phase, reacting to an old demand from clubs and partners: that football stadiums have fans of both teams again.
The president of the entity, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, announced the return of visitors, saying that the measure established “one before and one after” in Argentine football. In addition to the match at Lanús Stadium – which ended with a goal from Di María for Rosario Central – a game with visitors from the Clausura Tournament took place in Cordoba.
“It is the beginning for clubs that are in condition and want to receive the visiting public can do this. We have a lot of work ahead,” said the president of AFA. “It’s a day we expected.”
The Aperture and Clausura tournaments are the two competitions in which the Argentine First Division Championship is divided, each in a semester of the year. APARTURE 2025 was won by Platense.
The next game of the clausura with two fans will be on August 9, when Atletico Tucumán will face Rosario Central. AFA said security forces have already been summoned to reinforce monitoring at the northern stadium.
The decision of the visitors’ return was influenced by the return of Ángel Di María to the Argentina League, according to Tapia, meeting clubs requests so that fans who cheer for other teams can see the idol of the national team that won the 2022 World Cup. “Fans of other teams want to see Di María, who is the player who scored the most important goals in our team,” he said.
The measure will not yet be valid for the stadiums of the city of Buenos Aires, at least until next year. Despite an AFA meeting with the Authorities, it was not possible to reach an agreement with the teams of the capital.
Boca Juniors and River Plate did not want to give part of the tickets to other fans, claiming that the entries for members are already sold until the end of the season. Other stadiums, such as Huracán, have been renovated to single fans and have no partitions.
AFA imposed the ban in 2013 after the death of a fan during a first division match between Estudiantes and Lanús. Although the local league has this ban, the Argentine Cup matches in neutral stadiums still contain fans of both teams. Clubs need to ask permission to receive rival fans and are responsible for their behavior.
Argentine sociologist Diego Murzi, researcher at Conicet and Idaes School (University of San Martín) said that in games played in the interior of the country the visiting fans already went to the stadiums veiled, mixed with other fans. According to him, different factors explain AFA’s decision to make the official return.
“There is a clear professionalization of stadium security systems. Violence is a global problem, but Argentina is one of the countries with the most records of death. And most cases got unpunished because no one knew, there was no data, no one talked about it,” Murzi said.
For him, there is a certain consensus that stadiums became more peaceful after the covid-19 pandemic, partly by conflict with visiting fans does not exist, in part because the public profile at mass events has also been changing.
“Without rival fans, many angry bars [a parte mais violenta das torcidas organizadas] They keep their business in the stadiums without the need to resort to physical violence. What I see is that football in Argentina generates its own violence, not just organized fans groups and not just physical violence. “
The ban on visitors affected public participation. To give you an idea, the stocking of the stadiums in the initial Argentine championship tournament was 8.332 million and went, in the 2014 tournament, to 3.847 million viewers in total, a drop of 54%, according to data from the specialized Worldfootball site.
“There is also a political issue. ‘Chiqui’ Tapia has never declared interest in party policy, but always flirts with it, and the return of visitors adds political capital to him,” said Murzi, who specializes in sports social studies and author of the book “Futbol, Violence Y Estado”.
Safety logistics and multiple games in the same city represent challenges, making it difficult to adopt this new measure. The national government and AFA claim to be optimistic about this return, stating that it will bring a new atmosphere to football and that security will be priority, with nominal and strict controls.
