page_title: Football in Argentina
section_title: The beginning
hierarchical_section_title: Football in Argentina / History / The beginning
caption_attribution_description: English: Chronicle of the first association football match played in Argentina, published by The Standard newspaper in 1867. The game was played between members of the Buenos Aires Cricket Club in club's field sited in Palermo, Buenos Aires.
context_page_description: Association football is the most popular sport in the Argentine Republic and part of the culture in Argentina. It is the one with the most players and is the most popular recreational sport, played from childhood into old age. The percentage of Argentines that declare allegiance to an Argentine football club is about 90%.
  Football was introduced to Argentina in the later half of the 19th century by the British immigrants in Buenos Aires. The first Argentine league was contested in 1891, making it the fifth-oldest recognised league of a FIFA member. The Argentine Football Association was formed in 1893 and is the eighth-oldest in the world.
  The Argentina national team is one of the eight to have won the FIFA World Cup, having done so in 1978 and 1986, and also being runner-up in 1930, 1990 and 2014. Argentina has also won the top continental tournament, the Copa América, 14 times, and the FIFA Confederations Cup in 1992. The nation's Olympic representative has won two Gold Medals, while the under-20 team has won a record six U-20 World Cups. At club level, Argentine teams have won the most Intercontinental Cups and the most Copa Libertadores.
context_section_description: By 1867, there was a large British community in Buenos Aires who had arrived fresh from establishing their aforementioned, and slightly fictitious, "Great British" league (see introduction) (which according to most other accounts was two leagues; a Scottish league and an English league, which would make the Argentine the fourth-oldest, but for the sake of this article we will say it was just one.) Most of them had established themselves in Argentina coming from the United Kingdom as managers and workers of the British-owned railway companies that operated in Argentina. British citizens founded social and sports clubs where they could practise their sports, such as bowls, cricket, football, golf, horse riding, rugby union and tennis amongst others.
  Two English immigrants, Thomas and James Hogg, organized a meeting on 9 May 1867 in Buenos Aires where the Buenos Aires Football Club was founded. The club was given permission by the Buenos Aires Cricket Club to make use of the cricket field in Parque Tres de Febrero, Palermo, Buenos Aires, on the site now occupied by the Galileo Galilei planetarium. The first recorded football match in Argentina took place on this pitch on 20 June 1867, being covered by English language daily newspaper The Standard. This newspaper, published in Argentina, was the first one to cover football matches in the country.
  The match was played between two teams of British merchants, the White Caps and the Red Caps. (In the 19th century, it was common practice for teams to be distinguished by caps rather than shirts.) The teams consisted of eight players each as the organisers were unable to find more players for the match. The line-ups were: Thomas Hogg, James Hogg, William Forrester, T. B. Smith, J. W. Bond, E. S. Smith, J. Rabsbottom and N. H. Smith (one team); William Heald, T. R. Best, U. Smith, H. J. Barge, H. Willmont, R. M. Ramsay, J. Simpson and W. Boschetti (second team). The team led by Hogg won 4–0, according to The Standard newspaper published on June 23. The match played was a blend of both association and rugby footballs, with no goals on the field. The use of hands was also allowed.
  The first chronicle of a football match written in Spanish was published by local newspaper El Nacional on September 11, 1880. The chronicle referred to a "foot-ball" match played in a cricket field in Montevideo between an Uruguayan-Argentine combined vs a British team. The attendance was estimated in 1,000 people. Nevertheless, it is unclear what form of "football" was played due to the number of players on the field (15 per side).
  The "Southern Railway Athletic Club" (not related with the British railway company) might have been the first organised team under the "Association" rules, according to The Standard, that published a chronicle describing the existence of that team, with records of a match played at Lanús A.C. field in 1888. The chronicle also named Alexander Watson Hutton as one of the GSRFC players. The early matches of the team, in fact, were against Buenos Aires English High School.
caption: The first football match played in Argentina, as covered by The Standard, June 1867
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