Buenos Aires Football Amigos

The one sport immediately associated with Latin America is football. And in Argentina this is especially true. The country has consistently produced world class players for over a century – Alfredo di Stefano, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi – and anyone staying in Buenos Aires, and watching locals playing on one of the cities many indoor pitches, must be itching to get involved. And now they can.

Enter Buenos Aires Football Amigos, or BAFA. The organisation arranges matches four days per week between locals, expats, students and anyone else with a pair of trainers and an interest in having a kick around.

BAFA is run by David and Mike, who met in Buenos Aires in 2008 through football. They began as a group of six keen footballers arranging games for themselves and their friends, but, as the number of people interested in playing grew, organising the matches took an increasing amount of their time. “Pretty soon the group got big enough to play five against five and from then on, the group just began to grow as friends would invite friends.” The booking system evolved to email, to Facebook and, from this week, a new online booking system.

BAFA has grown considerably – there are now 240 people registered and  12 matches per week. New players are always welcome and made to feel at home immediately – part of the buena onda that David and Mike talk about. Their enthusiasm for football and BAFA is infectious. Within five minutes of arriving for my first game, I’d been introduced to all the other players – all from a variety of backgrounds and age groups – and, once the game began, was tackling as hard as being tackled and being involved in the constant camaraderie.

The buena onda doesn’t stop on the pitch. Relaxed post-match drinks on Wednesday are customary, and BAFA also arrange asados, trips to Primera División matches and, in the summer, weekend trips to the beaches of Mar del Plata. Mike adds: “It improves the community feel in the sense that we don’t just want to be about the pick-up games, we want people to use BAFA to socialise, meet new people, feel welcomed when coming to the often overwhelming city.”

The introduction of the women-only game each Sunday has been a popular addition to the schedule. But this doesn’t stop women getting stuck in with the guys – women consistently show the guys up in terms of strength, passion, and just plain skill.

The diversity of people playing adds to the interest. Out of 240 players currently signed up to the club, 80 are from the US, 30 from Argentina and a sizeable number from the UK and Germany. But there are even players from Tanzania, Morocco and Iran.

This year has seen the introduction of tournaments. A weekend and a month-long tournament have added another dimension to the word ‘competitive’. Last month saw the first charity tournament, arranged in support of love.fútbol, an organisation that builds football pitches in poor communities throughout Latin America. The eight-team tournament raised US$500, but David thinks they can do better. And they want to give something back to organisations local to Buenos Aires – the idea of offering prizes to students finishing top of their class or arranging matches with students from poorer areas.

So, what are the plans for the future? “Our longer term goal is to increase the number of weekly games to 30, and having our own pitch would be great and give us a lot of freedom. And we also don’t want to limit ourselves to Buenos Aires.”

“We also want to start to give back a bit more. I mean in the sense that we get a lot of satisfaction in helping out tourists, expats, and so on, but in a way we feel that Buenos Aires offers us so much yet there are a lot of less fortunate people here and in Argentina in general and we are in a position where we can do at least something, no matter how small.”

So while you may come away from the pitch with bruises, blisters and tired legs, you also leave with new friends and the all important buena onda.