Association football is by far the most popular sport in South America. Football was first introduced to the continent during the nineteenth century, as part of the worldwide diffusion of British culture initiated by the British diaspora and subsequent acceptance of the sport by the region's Anglophile elite. Football was widely regarded as a symbol of modernity and good health, and over time it replaced older fashionable sports, such as Bochas. By the middle of the twentieth century, it had become the primary mainstream sport across most of the continent.
The sport's organization is governed by domestic federations (or associations) and continental confederations, all of which are members of FIFA. Most South American football federations are part of CONMEBOL (the South American Football Confederation). There are a few exceptions: the associations based in the Guianas, which are part of CONCACAF (the North American Football Confederation), and the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas. The development of football is also organized by these domestic and international federations in conjunction with governmental sports authorities. Each country in South America has its own unique football development infrastructure, enjoying varying degrees of success.
History
European origin and colonization Although Football started in Europe as early as the 17th century, it had not gained national recognition until 1863. Prior to this, football was seen more as a pastime. Yet, despite the lack of a common structure of the game, historians have found that unofficial forms of football were played often, particularly amongst young men in public schools. As this trend rose, a call to standardize the game occurred, and in the 1860s, official rules were established which paved the way for football to travel as an established sport, rather than a simple game.
However, it could not be increased European popularity alone that contributed to its Latin American beginnings. In the late 19th century, British influence extended further than physical practices; their colonization also caused changes in social norms. The systems being established encouraged an assimilation to European culture. So, when synthesizing the large European community employed by railroads in Buenos Aires with the habitual evolution that was occurring due to colonization, locals began to play football as their British counterparts brought it overseas. This extended into an unofficial football league, known as the Great British League, which in practice was divided into an English and a Scottish league.
Early Growth The gradual rise in popularity of football after 1867 was due mainly to the influence of schools and the associated sports clubs. In Paraguay, Dutch physical education teacher William Paats taught his pupils the game and established rules, although he is not credited with the sport's breakthrough in the country. That honor goes to a Paraguayan who had witnessed one of the first league games in Buenos Aires.
The first official competition was held in Argentina in 1891, preceding the foundation of the football leagues of both Europe and the Americas. La Liga was contested that year between five clubs, each club facing its opponents twice.
Football spread elsewhere in South America, as it had in the port of Buenos Aires and later throughout Argentina. The process also occurred in North America, where Europeans settling in the United States and Canada in the second half of the nineteenth century brought football with them.
Before the end of the nineteenth century, informal football matches were already being held between teams hailing from different parts of the newly-formed countries. Finally, in the twentieth century football was introduced in the United States as a counterpoint to American football. In the northern part of Latin America, baseball and basketball were introduced, competing with football and slowing the development of football infrastructure in Central America compared with other parts of the continent. In 1927, Costa Rica became the first country to sign up to the world football association, FIFA, founded in 1904. In 1929, it was followed by Mexico. Football had been introduced by Europeans who had remained in America but, in turn, young Latin Americans were attracted to Europe. When capitalism was introduced in Central and South America, countries like Costa Rica became a link in the global economy. As a result, European countries had an impact not just on political and economic matters, but also in the cultural field. The younger generation went to Western Europe, especially England, and was exposed to football at public facilities and university squares there. -CR / Historia del fútbol and CR on the official website of the Costa Rican Football Federation. Accessed on 9 November 2014.
Courtesy of the British colonies in the Caribbean, cricket won the popularity contest against football, among other pastimes. Football was popular in Jamaican townships, but at a regional level it only broke through towards the end of the twentieth century. The first match between two Caribbean countries was held in 1925. In a series of three encounters, the Jamaica national football team won three times over Haiti. Four years later, the first Nations Cup was played on the Central American mainland, in celebration of the centenary of independence from Spain.
Integration into society
Football was first introduced to South America in 1867, in Argentina. Brazil, to which the Briton Charles Miller brought football in 1894, is considered the second South American country in which football made an appearance. Miller was born in São Paulo of a Brazilian mother who belonged to the elite of that city's population. Miller's father was a railroad worker of Scottish descent.
Miller was sent to boarding school in Southampton at the age of ten, in 1884. Like the Costa Rican circular migrants, he discovered football in England. Miller went on to found the first team in Brazil, as part of the athletics club of São Paulo, and also the first football league, the Campeonato Paulista.
Europeans living in Latin America played the sport. Football grew in popularity among railway employees, and increasingly attracted attention away from cricket. British football was introduced in countries like Panama, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela, but the sport's full integration into society followed later. Brazilians and Argentinians were the first to record football as a part of their culture. The sport caught on quickly, especially in less affluent neighborhoods. Children played from an early age in the streets, squares, vacant lots and fields and devised strategies and techniques. Football clubs and youth programs sprang up. In the 1930s, the highest-level competitive divisions in most Latin American countries included some professional football clubs. By that time, where previously it had been a sport primarily for Europeans, football had become definitively established in the culture and enjoyed great popularity almost everywhere. In 1923, Brazilian CR Vasco da Gama became the first professional club to recruit local, black players, launching an irreversible trend.
Renewed British influence
While the British brought football to Latin America, they did not implement successful and consistent integration policies. Across the continent, their ideas about football faded within a short time, leaving no clear overall game concept or generally accepted rules. In the early twentieth century, British football clubs began touring in countries in the Americas. They taught practitioners of the sport an English way of playing, stimulating new developments in Latin American football. These tours led to the semi-amateur sport becoming a professional spectator sport. Southampton F.C., founded in 1885, travelled to Buenos Aires in 1904 at the invitation of the Sociedad Hípica, an elite club in the Argentine capital. The high attendance demonstrated that the friendly match between the local club and Southampton was not just a sporting encounter but an elite social event. The then President of Argentina, Julio Roca, attended the match, accompanied by his War Secretary and a military escort, as football had recently been introduced in the Argentine Army. During its tour in Buenos Aires and Uruguay's capital Montevideo, Southampton made a great impression on the local population, especially the British. British belief in their own sporting superiority was strengthened.
Nottingham Forest F.C. followed, in 1905. During the trip across the Atlantic, the players kept fit by playing cricket on deck. They toured Montevideo, Rosario and Buenos Aires for a total of seven matches. The results showed their superiority over the local football clubs. Británicos and Liga ArgentinaThe name "Liga Argentina" probably designated a star ensemble or representative team of Argentine football. This team is mentioned in several sources covering conflict between Argentinian gameplay and the original British style. The team would have consisted almost entirely of Anglo-Argentine players were defeated 13–1 and 9–1 respectively. Nottingham Forest also easily dispatched the national team of Argentina 5–0. Ultimately, Nottingham F.C. scored 52 goals on its South American tour and conceded only three. Its impressive dominance on the field further reinforced the football-loving British sense of superiority. The popularity of the British clubs led a group of employees of a luxury department store in downtown Buenos Aires to establish their own independent football club, CA Independiente, in 1904. They then changed the team color to red, a choice inspired by Nottingham Forest and reinforced by the symbolic connection of the color with the socialist movement in the country, which some of Independiente's founders supported.
1906 marked a turning point in Argentinian football, and Latin American football as a whole, when a South African team played a series of matches in South America. South African football had developed along lines reasonably similar to Latin America. While the South African club still played below the level of the British, the game had developed a lot more than the game played in countries like Argentina and Uruguay. They defeated Brazilian club Paulista 6–0, and scored 14 goals to eliminate a student team. Alumni Athletic Club, founded in 1898, was the only club able to make a stand against the South Africans. After its 1–0 win, the first victory of an Argentinian club against an overseas opponent, the audience stormed the field to lift the players high in celebration. This is presumed to have been the first such win in Latin America, and Alumni were congratulated by the then President of the Republic. Visits from overseas clubs signalled the increasing integration of football in society, boosting the sport's professionalization and the public's enthusiasm. British clubs accepted invitations in order to play the role of "football missionary", which proved of great importance for the further development of Latin American football.
First confederations and international competitions