History on Boca Juniors

Contextual Essay

INTRODUCTION

It is no surprise that one of the biggest forms of entertainment within the Latin American Culture and world is in fact the sport of soccer. In fact it seems like since the dawn of time Latinx people have adored the sport and become rabid fans of many different clubs. However, for this specific essay I will be focusing on one specific club. That specific club is the Buenos Aires, #1 Argentine club, known as Boca Juniors. In the following pages I will breakdown my research and new found information on the several aspects of the club that I studied. The first aspects of the club that I studied and engaged with were both the country and teams economic histories. These will help me to further elaborate on how soccer teams and especially Boca Juniors are tied to the economic success of Latin America or more specifically Argentine in this case. From there I will move on to exploring and examining the other aspects associated with soccer and its country. Mainly I will be providing information on how the team has moved passed just economic ties and has managed to branch off into being a cultural and political phenomenon as well. The following information will be presented in a sectional/categorical form providing all the essential information needed to know about Boca Juniors and its economic, political, and cultural histories and ties to Latin America.

ECONOMIC HISTORY

The first of the major categories I created and worked upon was the creation of the “economics” category of my research. Within this category I looked into the economic history of both Boca Juniors and Argentina as a whole. I also focused on examining team salaries and the overall entire sum of money that the team is worth to see how they can afford such luxuries. With all that being mentioned an gotten out of the way lets begin with the history behind Argentina and its economy. To begin with Argentina is a very complex country that has a very  unique financial/economical standing among Latin American Countries. Argentina according to a 2019 newspaper article posted by the Bloomberg Businessweek was suffering a severe “economic crisis triggered by mounting deficits and debt, and political instability with sharp swings between governments of the right and left.” However, even though Argentina was and is still dealing with the ramifications of this very real and severe economic situation, it still remains South Americas second largest economy.  But through my research I found out that situations like these are actually very common within Argentina. Calling back to the article by Bloomberg Businessweek it seems that Argentina is a country plagued by economic crisis. “Since 1950, Argentina has spent 33% of the time in recession, second in the world behind the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the World Bank.” On top of this the countries “tax laws have been modified 80 times since 1988, while fiscal rules changed 14 times”(Boomberg). All of this is to say that Argentina is a country with a history of economic downfalls, however these downfalls are not represented within their soccer teams success, specifically Boca Juniors. In fact in terms of economic success and worth Boca Juniors is second among all teams in its division. According to these stats on team worth of leading soccer clubs at the 2019 Copa Libertadores founded by Statista, Boca Juniors ranks second in team value with a net worth of 117.6 million U.S. dollars. These are not the only liberties afforded to Boca Juniors as one of the stat websites I visited Transfermarket lays out the entire rosters salary. Boca Juniors highest paid player reportedly makes 11 million U.S. while even the lowest paid player makes approximately 880 thousand dollars U.S., a far cry from showing any signs of Argentina’s economic issues.Seeing this info brought me back to my previous question of does Boca Juniors play any role within Buenos Aires, Argentina’s economy. The answer I got to this question was a yes however, I also learned that it actually plays a less significant but still major part in the economic process. Within a 2018 news article posted by the “AS Football” it goes through and documents how much money was generated by a match between rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. In the article it states that this event brought a 25 million euro or 27 million U.S. dollar economic impact to the capital of spain where it was hosted. From here it breaks down all the different places that the money would then be funneled into. The article then states how of the 25 million euro was divided with “50% of it going to hotels and 20% will be in dining at restaurants with 10% going to shopping.The rest will be go to other establishments affected by games like this”(AS Football). So the answer to my previous question of does Boca Juniors play a role within Argentina or Buenos Aires economy was a yes. However what I learned was that Boca Juniors only plays a small role in the economic success of its hometown. This because money made from these events is only marginally allocated to minor businesses with many other forms of revenue such as advertisements going strictly to the team and their sponsors.  This discovery however is what allowed for me to dig deeper and start to ask if it only contributes minorly to economic success then why is the soccer team so large and wealthy. 

CULTURE AND POLITICS

I found my answers to these questions through frivolous researching and they took the form of my next category of research which is Culture and Politics. After researching and finding that while it may play some type of role within the economic success of Buenos Aires and less so for Argentina, Boca Juniors still has a bigger role to play. This is because while economically it may be significant, culturally and politically Bocas Juniors is monstrous. Starting with looking at the cultural side of things. Boca Juniors might be a team that  defines itself as an elite powerhouse among other teams but it’s far more than that, especially to the people of Buenos Aires. To them Boca Juniors is the champion and face of the people going all the way back to its origins. According to FootballHistory.com of the two Argentine teams created within Buenos Aires, Boca Juniors was always looked at as the team of the people and represented the largely populated poor section. Meanwhile their biggest rival River Plate was always viewed as the team of the rich and uppercrust which only fueled the deeply rooted rivalry. This rivalry is so large in fact that in a 2018 New York Times article on the championship matchup between the two it was reported that over 65% Argentina’s population was tuned into the event. These games are so hyped and there is so much chaos generated that according to that same article over 2,000 policemen were dispatched to maintain order around the stadium. But this game is not just culturally important but also politically as well. This is seen no better than when Mauricio Macri the former chairman of Boca Juniors from 1996 to 2007  decided to leave and run for president. In a interview on the Financial Times, Macri stated “I don’t have to invest any capital to be known. I have 98 per cent recognition. Better, he added, Boca’s triumphs had given him a reputation for competence.” Through his unprecedented success with the Boca Juniors Team, Mauricio Macri was able to capture the hearts and minds of the people allowing for him to have a landslide victory and become President for 4 years. This is the power that is generated from Boca Juniors and the biggest role it plays within Buenos Aires.

Conclusion

Through my research I have learned how great the economic turmoil of Argentina is but more importantly I learned that while it does play a significant economic role, Boca Juniors  as a whole is so much more. For a large portion of the population it both a national and cultural identity that draws people together. Even still for others it’s a means to branch out to other greater political goals or dreams. But the one thing that stays constant through it all is the immense love and respect for soccer that it creates. 

Sources

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