Argentine Football Association

The Argentine Football Association (Spanish: Asociación del Fútbol Argentino, locally [asosjaˈsjon del ˈfuðβol aɾxenˈtino]; AFA) is the governing body of football in Argentina based in Buenos Aires. It organises the main divisions of Argentine league system (from Primera División to Torneo Regional Federal and Torneo Promocional Amateur), including domestic cups: Copa Argentina, Supercopa Argentina, Copa de la Liga Profesional, Trofeo de Campeones de la Liga Profesional and the Supercopa Internacional. The body also manages all the Argentina national teams, including the Senior, U-20, U-17, U-15, Olympic and women's squads. Secondly, it also organizes the women's, children, youth, futsal, and other local leagues.

Argentine Football Association

CONMEBOL
Founded	21 February 1893; 131 years ago (1893-02-21)[1]
Headquarters	Viamonte 1366, Buenos Aires, Argentina
FIFA affiliation	1 July 1912; 112 years ago (1912-07-01)
CONMEBOL affiliation	9 July 1916; 108 years ago (1916-07-09)
President	Claudio Tapia[2]
Vice-President	List Jorge Amor Ameal Rodolfo D'Onofrio Hugo Moyano Marcelo Tinelli Marcelo Achille Guillermo Raed [2]
Website	afa.com.ar

The AFA also organised all the Primera División championships from 1893 to 2016–17. From the 2017–18 season the "Superliga Argentina", an entity which was administered independently and had its own statute, took over the Primera División championships.^[3] Nevertheless, the Superliga was contractually linked with the main football body.^[4] The last championship organised by the Superliga was 2019–20, shortly after the season ended the body was dissolved.^[5]

History

The Argentine Association Football League (in English) was founded on 21 February 1893 by Alexander Watson Hutton, considered "the father" of Argentine football.^[6] The Argentine Association is the oldest in South America and one of the oldest to be formed outside Europe. In 1906, Florencio Martínez de Hoz became the first Argentine-born president of the association.^[7]

In 1912, the president of Gimnasia y Esgrima (BA), Ricardo Aldao, broke up with the association, establishing an own league, the "Federación Argentina de Football" which organized a parallel tournament. Some teams moved to the FAF were Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP), Independiente, Estudiantes (LP) and Atlanta. The league lasted until 1914 when rejoining Asociación Argentina de Football, forming a unique league for the 1915 season.

The second dissident league was formed in 1919 and named "Asociación Amateurs de Football", organizing its own championships (as FAF had done) until 1926 when it merged to the official association. The dissident league included some of the most prominent teams, such as River Plate, Racing, Independiente and San Lorenzo, with the exception of Boca Juniors that remained in the official "Asociación Argentina de Football".

When both leagues merged for the 1927 season, the association was again renamed to "Asociación Amateur Argentina de Football" until the professionalization of the sport in 1931 when it switched to "Liga Argentina de Football". The first round of the recently created professional championship was on 31 May 1931.^[1][8]

Despite football turning professional in Argentina, some clubs wanted to remain amateur, so they formed a new league, the "Asociación de Football Amateur y Profesionales", which organized a parallel tournament until 1934 when the dissident association merged with LAF on 3 November 1934 to form the "Asociación del Football Argentino" which has remained since.^[1][9]

In 2015, during the presidential elections to elect a new president for the body, there were two candidates to occupy Julio Humberto Grondona's chair, Marcelo Tinelli –who wanted a change in how things were going, like eliminating corruption between some clubs and the AFA– and Luis Segura, who had taken charge after Grondona's death, with the intention of extending his mandate.

With 75 presidents of different Argentine clubs voting, on election day something went wrong when the final count resulted in a draw of 38 to 38 (76 votes in total). The explanation given was that one of the electors put a double vote and that mistake was not reported. As a result, the executive committee decided to postpone the election.^[10]

After some meetings to put an end to the conflict, both candidates agreed to have another election in June 2016.^[11]

In June 2016, AFA president Luis Segura was charged with "aggravated administrative fraud".^[12] Segura has been replaced on an interim basis by the AFA's executive secretary, Damián Dupiellet.^[13]

In 2017, the association approved the creation of a new entity, named "Superliga Argentina de Fútbol", which would take over the organization of the Primera División championship.^[14] The main European football leagues such as the English Premier League or the Spanish La Liga, that are organized by associations dedicated exclusively to those championships and run as separate entities from their respective National Associations, served as inspiration for the creation of the Superliga.^[15]

The 2016–17 Primera División championship was the last tournament organized by the AFA. Starting with the 2017–18 season to 2019–20 season, the "Superliga Argentina", an entity administered by itself with its own statute, organised Primera División championships.^[3] In March 2020, AFA dissolved the Superliga and took over the Primera División again.^[5]

Names

The body has been renamed several times since its establishment in 1893, in most of the cases translating the original English names to Spanish. The list of names is the following:^[16]

• Argentine Association Football League (1893–1903) ^{[n1 1]}
• Argentine Football Association (1903–1912)
• Asociación Argentina de Football (1912–1927)
• Asociación Amateur Argentina de Football (1927–1931)
• Asociación de Football Amateurs y Profesionales (1931–1934)
• Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (1934–present) ^{[n1 2]}

Notes

1. The organisation was founded with the same name as its predecessor, the AAFL of 1891
2. Translated into Spanish as "Asociación del Fútbol Argentino" in 1946

Current staff

As of 22 May 2024^[update]:^[17]

• President: Claudio Tapia
• Vice-presidents:
  • Jorge Amor Ameal (Boca Juniors)
  • Rodolfo D'Onofrio (River Plate)
  • David Garzón (Huracán)
  • Carlos Montaña (Def. de Belgrano)
  • Guillermo Raed (C.A. Mitre)
• General Secretary: Víctor Blanco
• Treasurer: Pablo Toviggino
• Executive Secretary: Luís M. Chebel
• Men's senior head coach: Lionel Scaloni
• Men's U-20 head coach: Javier Mascherano
• Women's head coach: Carlos Borrello
• National teams General Director: César Luis Menotti^[18][19]

Competitions

Official Competitions

The list of official competitions organized by the Argentine Football Association since its creation in 1893 are:^[20][21]

Current competitions
Name	Organised
Primera División	1891, 1893–2017, 2020–present [n2 1]
Primera B	1899–present
Primera C	1900–present
Copa Argentina	1969–1970, 2011–present [n2 2]
Primera Nacional	1986–present
Primera División (Futsal)	1986–present
Primera División A (Women´s)	1991–present
Primera División B (Futsal) (es)	1998–present
Torneo del Interior (Women´s) (es)	2012–present
Supercopa Argentina	2012–present [n2 3]
Torneo Federal A	2014–present
Primera División C (Futsal)	2014–present
Primera División B (Women`s)	2016–present
Primera División D (Futsal)	2017–present
Torneo Regional Federal	2018–present
Liga Nacional de Futsal Argentina (es)	2018–present
Primera División C (Women´s)	2019–present
Copa de la Liga Profesional	2020–present
Trofeo de Campeones de la Liga Profesional	2020–present
Copa Federal de Fútbol Femenino (es)	2021–present
Supercopa Internacional	2022–present [n2 4]
Torneo Promocional Amateur	2024–present
Defunct competitions
Copa de Honor Municipalidad de Buenos Aires	1905–1936
Copa de Competencia Jockey Club	1913–1933
Copa de Competencia La Nación	1913–1914
Copa Dr. Carlos Ibarguren	1913–1958
Copa Estímulo	1920–1926
Copa Presidente de la Nación	1927–1989 [n2 5]
Copa Adrián C. Escobar	1939–1949
Campeonato de la República Copa Gral Pedro Ramírez	1943–1945 [n2 6]
Copa de Competencia Británica	1944–1948
Primera D	1950–2023
Copa Suecia	1958 [n2 7]
Torneo Regional (es)	1967–1985
Torneo del Interior (es)	1986–1995
Copa Centenario de la AFA	1993 [n2 8]
Torneo Argentino A	1995–2014
Torneo Argentino B	1995–2014
Torneo Argentino C	2005–2014
Torneo Nacional de Futsal (es)	2008–2017
Copa Campeonato	2013–2014 [n2 9]
Torneo Federal B	2014–2017
Torneo Federal C (es)	2015–2018
Copa Bicentenario	2016

Notes

1. In fact, the first official "Primera División" championship was held in 1891 and organized by a precedent association, "Argentine Association Football League", dissolved at the end of the season.^[22] Since the 2017–18 season to the 2019–20 season, Primera División was organized by the Superliga Argentina de Fútbol.^[3]
2. The Copa Argentina was re-launched in 2011.^[23]
3. Contested by the champions of Primera División and Copa Argentina.
4. Contested by the champions of Primera División and Trofeo de Campeones.
5. Created and first organised by dissident Asociación Amateurs de Football and contested by representatives of regional leagues. When the AAmF folded, the AFA took over the competition, organising it until its last edition in 1989.
6. Also known as "Campeonato de la República", it received the name "Copa General de División Pedro Pablo Ramírez", due to the trophy having been donated by the de facto President of Argentina, Pedro P. Ramírez
7. Held once to keep league teams in readiness while the 1958 FIFA World Cup was being played
8. Held once to celebrate the 100th. anniversary of the Association ^[24]
9. Once Inicial and Final tournaments had finished, both winners played a match named "Superfinal". The Association had determined that the first edition (played in 2013) would be considered as a Primera División official title (2012–13 season), therefore Vélez Sársfield was awarded its 10th official championship after defeating Newell's Old Boys.^[25] Nevertheless, from the 2014 edition it was determined that the Superfinal would not be considered as a Primera División title but a national cup.^[26]

Dissident Competitions

The following table include competitions organized by dissident associations.^[21]

Other competitions
Name	Time	Association
Copa de Competencia (AAm)	1920–1926	Asociación Amateurs de Football
Copa Presidente de la Nación	1920–1926	Asociación Amateurs de Football [n3 1]
Copa de Competencia (LAF)	1932–1933	Liga Argentina de Football
Copa Adrián Beccar Varela	1932–1933	Liga Argentina de Football

Notes

1. The AFA took over the competition when the AAmF folded.

Presidents

Official Association Asociación del Fútbol Argentino Period President/s 1893–1896 Alexander Watson Hutton 1897–1898 Alfredo P. Boyd 1899 Charles Wibberley 1900–1905 Frank Chevallier Boutell 1906 Florencio Martínez de Hoz 1907–1908 Emilio Hansen 1909–1914 Hugo Wilson 1915–1917 Adolfo Orma 1918–1919 Ricardo Aldao 1919–1921 Federico Luzio 1921–1922 Benjamin Toulouse 1922–1924 Aldo Cantoni 1924–1926 Virgilio Tedin Uriburu 1926 Natalio Botana 1927–1929 Adrián Beccar Varela 1929–1932 Juan Pignier 1932 Carlos Anessi 1932–1933 Silvio Serra 1933–1934 José Claisse 1934 Alejandro Russo 1934 Tiburcio Padilla 1935 Ernesto F. Malbec 1936 Ángel Molinari 1937–1938 Eduardo Sánchez Terrero 1939–1940 Adrián Escobar 1941–1943 Ramón Castillo 1944 Jacinto Armando 1945 Agustín Nicolás Matienzo 1946 Eduardo J. Avalos 1947 Pedro Canaveri 1948–1949 Oscar Nicolini 1949 Cayetano Giardulli 1950–1953 Valentín Suárez 1954–1955 Domingo Peluffo 1955 Cecilio Conditi 1956 Arturo Bullrich [n4 1] 1957–1965 Raúl Colombo 1966 Francisco Perette 1967–1968 Valentin Suárez [n4 1] 1968 Armando Ramos Ruiz [n4 1] 1969 Aldo J. Porri [n4 1] 1969 Oscar L. Ferrari [n4 1] 1969–1971 Juan Oneto Gaona [n4 1] 1971–1973 Raúl D'Onofrio [n4 1] 1973 Horacio Bruzzone [n4 1] 1973–1974 Baldomero Gigan [n4 1] 1974 Fernando Mitjans [n4 1][n4 2] 1974–1976 David Bracuto [n4 3] 1976–1979 Alfredo Cantilo 1979–2014 Julio Grondona 2014–2016 Luis Segura 2016–2017 Armando Pérez [n4 1] 2017–present Claudio Tapia[27]

Dissident Associations Federación Argentina de Football Period President/s 1912–1914 Ricardo Aldao Asociación Amateurs de Football Period President/s 1919 Juan Mignaburu 1920–1926 Adrián Beccar Varela Liga Argentina de Football [n4 4] Period President/s 1931 Julio Planisi 1932–1934 Eduardo Larrandart 1934 Tiburcio Padilla

Alexander Watson Hutton, the first president of the Argentine Football Association in 1893 Ricardo Aldao (1918–19), had also presided dissident Federación Argentina de Football Adrián Beccar Varela presided from 1927 to his death in 1929 Adrián C. Escobar (1939–41) Julio Grondona had the longest tenure at the AFA, with 35 years as President of the body

Notes

1. Interventor
2. Director
3. Expelled by the Argentine military dictatorship
4. When football became professional in Argentina, the teams that wanted to remain amateur formed this league that organized its own tournaments from 1931 to 1934, when it merged with the professional body, with all of its teams being relegated to the second division.^[28]

References

1. "SITIO OFICIAL DE LA ASOCIACIÓN DEL FÚTBOL ARGENTINO". Archived from the original on 30 November 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
2. La nueva AFA Archived 2020-07-26 at the Wayback Machine on TyC, 18 Mar 2020
3. El fútbol que viene asomando Archived 2023-02-27 at the Wayback Machine by Gustavo Veiga, Página/12, 28 Jun 2017
4. La Superliga dio el puntapié inicial Archived 2023-02-27 at the Wayback Machine, Página/12, 28 Jul 2017
5. Reunión clave en el fútbol argentino: Tapia recibió a los principales dirigentes de Primera con la idea de ponerle fin a la Superliga Archived 2020-07-26 at the Wayback Machine on Infobae, 26 Feb 2020
6. "La historia de una casa poderosa" Archived 2015-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, Clarín, 21 Feb 2003
7. "Campeones del Bicentenario" Archived 2015-04-16 at the Wayback Machine, La Nación, 2010-5-18
8. Diario Ole – "Bodas de Brillante"
9. Historia del Fútbol Amateur en la Argentina, by Jorge Iwanczuk. Published by Autores Editores (1992) – ISBN 9504343848
10. "Escándalo: la elección en la AFA salió empatada por un error y ahora Segura y Tinelli analizan unirse" Archived 2015-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, La Nación, 3 Dec 2015
11. "Historia de un papelón: con 75 asambleístas hubo 76 votos" Archived 2016-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, Clarín, 3 Dec 2015
12. "FIFA to oversee Argentinean FA after FIFA Council member charged – Sports Integrity Initiative". 27 June 2016. Archived from the original on 23 August 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
13. "Ousted Argentine Football Association President attacks FIFA for taking over crisis-hit organisation". 26 June 2016. Archived from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
14. La AFA aprobó la creación de la Superliga Archived 2019-02-17 at the Wayback Machine, La Nueva, 24 Feb 2017
15. La creación de la Liga Argentina Archived 2019-02-17 at the Wayback Machine by Fernando Czyz on La Nación, 19 Apr 2016
16. "SITIO OFICIAL DE LA ASOCIACIÓN DEL FÚTBOL ARGENTINO". Archived from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
17. Comité ejecutivo Archived 2019-07-11 at the Wayback Machine, AFA
18. Qué funciones tendrá Menotti como Director de Selecciones Nacionales Archived 2019-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, Clarín, 14 Jan 2019
19. César Luis Menotti será Director de Selecciones en Argentina Archived 2019-06-29 at the Wayback Machine on FIFA.com, 14 Jan 2019
20. "SITIO OFICIAL DE LA ASOCIACIÓN DEL FÚTBOL ARGENTINO". Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
21. "Argentina – Domestic Cup History". Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
22. "Argentina 1891". Archived from the original on 28 February 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
23. "En medio de las polémicas, Grondona lanzó la Copa Argentina" on Notio.com.ar 19 May 2011
24. AFA Centenary Cup Archived 2023-02-02 at the Wayback Machine on RSSSF
25. ""Vélez venció a Newell's y es el Supercampeón", Clarín, 29 Dec 2013". Archived from the original on 24 January 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
26. ""La AFA homologó la final de River como una copa nacional", Cancha Llena, 28 May 2014". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
27. Claudio Chiqui Tapia fue electo presidente casi sin oposición y comienza una nueva era Archived 2017-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Clarín, 29 Mar 2017
28. "Argentina 1934 (amateur)". Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2017.

External links

• Official website
• Argentina at FIFA site (archived 3 June 2007)
• FuteMAX
• Futemaxgratis

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