Club Atlético Banfield is an Argentine sports club based in Banfield, a city in the Greater Buenos Aires area. It was founded on 21 January 1896 by British-origin inhabitants of the city, predominantly English with some Scottish and Irish members. The club is best known for its football team, which competes in the Primera División, the top division of the Argentine football league system.
In 2009 Banfield obtained their first Primera División title after winning the 2009 Apertura. Banfield had previously achieved a national cup title in 1920, when the club won the Copa de Honor Municipalidad de Buenos Aires after beating Boca Juniors 2–1. The club also won 10 titles in Primera Nacional, the second tier division in Argentina.
The club contests the Clásico del Sur (Southern Classic) against Lanús, considered a modern derby in Argentine football, and maintains rivalries with Los Andes, Temperley, Talleres (RdE), and Quilmes. In October 2018, with the appointment of Lucía Barbuto, Banfield became the first club in the history of Argentina's top division to elect a woman as president. The club also has a women's football section, established in 1997 and affiliated with the Argentine Football Association (AFA) in 2018.
Other sports practiced at the club include boxing, chess, field hockey, futsal, gymnastics, handball, roller skating, taekwondo, tennis and volleyball.Actividades deportivas at Banfield website , 8 October 2014
History
Origin and foundation In the second half of the 1880s, many British families settled in the village of Banfield,Banfield located 14 miles south of Buenos Aires. These families, with their English-style houses and Victorian social dynamics, gave the suburbs a distinctly British profile. The history of the club began on 21 January 1896, when a group of professionals and English merchants residing in Banfield decided to found a club which they named after the village, which had been named after the railway station, established in 1873, which in turn was named after Edward Banfield, the first manager of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway. Heading the group of founders were Daniel Kingsland and George Burton, vice president and first. Kingsland was an exporter of cattle in Britain and an accountant while Burton was a Cambridge University graduate.
The pitch was a field for grazing located two blocks north of the railway station, next to the tracks on the east side. With Kingsland as president, cricket was the major sport, leaving football relegated to the background, which explains the poor performances of the club in football championships from 1897 to 1898, where the team finished in last place even suffering some of the largest defeats ever such as a 0–10 at the hands of defunct Flores AC.
First Successes
This situation lasted until 1899, when Alfredo Goode (a football enthusiast) was named president. In 1899 Banfield won its first title, proclaiming Second Division champion over Español High School.List of 2nd division champions at rsssf Banfield remains the only club currently affiliated with the Argentine Football Association (AFA), that had won a title in the 19th. century.
Banfield players were all born in Great Britain except the center half and captain James Dodds Watson, an Argentine native born in Buenos Aires. The following year (1900), as there was still no promotion, Banfield retained the Second Division championship. That time the club won the title without being defeated. Key players included the goalscorer Edward "Invincible" Potter, noted dribbler Charles Douglas Moffatt, captain Watson Dodds, and goalkeeper/president Goode.
After that success, the club began to decline until December 1904, when Banfield was reorganized, with all of its assets liquidated to meet a hopeless bankruptcy. During those years, the figure of George Burton, another true lover of football, presided over the club until his death in 1928.
In 1908, the club's first team, playing in the Third Division, won the championship. In December 1910, a Banfield squad including William Peterson, Roger Jacobelli, Amador García, Carlos Lloveras, Galup Lanus and Bartholomew, amongst others, faced Racing Club in a two legged playoff for a place in the top division. The first match ended 0–0, with Racing finally winning, with a goal in extra time during the second match. In 1912, with the leadership of Captain Adolfo Pellens, Banfield won the championship for the third category thus the club ensured its return to second division. However, a restructuring of the tournament caused the first split in Argentine football, sending Banfield directly to the top category.
Banfield performed well in the 1913 and 1914 tournaments, but when World War I began, many of the team's players, who were of British origin, were enrolled in the British Army and were sent to the battlefront in Europe. In 1919, Banfield returned to the first division after beating defunct Del Plata in the final game.
The 1920s
Recently promoted, Banfield was runner-up behind champion Boca Juniors. That same year, Banfield played the Buenos Aires municipal honor cup. His first match was against Almagro. The match ended 1–1, after a 30-minute stretch. In the tiebreaker, Almagro won 1–0 and Banfield was eliminated. Boca Juniors reached the semifinals against Newell's Old Boys, one of those classified by the Rosario League. And Lanús, before the other Rosario, Federal Shot. But Lanús did not get to play, because he left the Argentine Football Association. Given this, the Tournament was rescheduled, among those who had been eliminated. Banfield won the points against Estudiantes de La Plata, who did not appear and defeated Sportivo Barracas and Porteño, to reach the semifinal against Tiro Federal. In the final, the Drill beat Boca. After losing 1–0 with a goal from Marcelino Martínez in the first half. For the complement, Banfield with goals from Bernardo Pambrún and Adolfo López, turned it around to be champion.
In 1928, club president George Burton died. He had chaired the club for over 20 years with a paternalistic attitude, cultivating and fervently supporting the amateur spirit of sport. His death created a large vacuum of power that plunged Banfield into a constitutional crisis for a decade.
1930s and 1940s In 1931, a group of clubs, led by the major teams, decided to establish a professional football league in Argentina. Therefore, "Liga Argentina de Football" was created. This association ended the covert professionalism that had occurred up until then, and remained as a dissident body so the official Argentine Football Association (AFA) was still amateur.
Banfield was invited to join the professional LAF to play its own competition (also named "Primera División"), but its leaders believed that professionalism would fail in the short term, and instead chose to continue participating in the amateur tournament. Immediately Banfield players received offers from now-professional clubs and left the team.
With a decimated roster, Banfield participated in amateur AFA tournament until 1934, when the LAF merged to it. In 1935, Banfield joined AFA and was assigned to the Second Division. The team made poor campaigns, with less than 300 supporters per game. In 1938, Banfield finished last, being relegated to a lower division.
In late 1938, a group of members proposed to young entrepreneur Florencio Sola to take over the presidency of the club; although Banfield was in a critical situation, Sola nonetheless accepted. Taking advantage of club Estudiantil Porteño (that played in second division and had been disaffiliated from the AFA) Sola acted to prevent Banfield dropping into the Third Division. The Second Division rules stated that the six teams best placed at the end of the championship, would play a tournament (torneo hexagonal) which winner would promote to Primera División. Banfield qualified for that tournament although it was then revealed that club's manager Alberto Torreaga had bribed two footballers of Barracas Central, which lost to Banfield 3–2.El primer soborno de Banfield on Xenen Banfield played the tournament with many players loaned from other clubs. The squad won the hexagonal, promoting to Primera División in the 4th. round.
Banfield started the 1940 season with a renovated team, with players like Rafael Sanz, Eduardo Silvera, John Baptist Busuzzo, Alfredo De Terán, Armando Farro and others, the newspaper El Pampero nicknamed the team "El Taladro" ("The Drill"), which has remained the club's official nickname.
Banfield's stadium (later named "Florencio Sola"), was built in 1940 in the city of Banfield. To celebrate its inauguration, a match against Independiente took place, which Banfield lost 1–0 with a goal by Arsenio Erico. In 1941, Banfield was punished with a 16-point deduction for attempted bribery, but after a great campaign, the team avoided being relegated in the last fixture, with a victory over Rosario Central.
After the campaigns of 1942 and 1943, the squad suffered several casualties and the team was relegated in 1944. The chair was occupied by Joseph Agulla in 1945. Meanwhile, Banfield made a good campaign in Second Division, but after a constitutional crisis later that year became Remigio Sola, brother of Florencio, became president. Chaired by Sola, the club formed a solid team for 1946 season, winning the second division championship with a season record that took over forty years to be broken.
In 1948, Florencio Sola became president for second time. Under his command, Banfield hired many players in order to form a strong team, although the club would not make a good campaign, nearly being relegated again. In the last five fixtures of that season, a strike of professional players was declared, thus all teams put youth players on the field. Renato Cesarini was Banfield coach during that period, obtaining 9 of 10 points which allowed Banfield to remain in the main division.
1950s and 1960s: Glorious campaigns In 1950, Banfield finished seventh in the first division championship. In 1951, with José Ildefonso Martínez and Félix Zurdo in the technical direction, Banfield occupied the first position of the table, but had to tie the breaker with Racing Club although he was ahead of the latter in goal difference and games won. He should have been the champion for the best goal difference (average goal, which was implemented shortly after), but he had to play two finals with Racing and lost in the second game by 1 to 0. The newspaper "El Pampero" baptized him as a moral champion .
Featuring almost the same team, Banfield ranked fifth in the 1952 championship. In 1953, the key player Eliseo Mouriño was acquired by Boca Juniors, which significantly affected the team: the following year he finished last and was relegated to the second division. After seven years, Florencio Sola did not want to continue leading the club and in 1955 presidential elections were held for the first time in the history of the institution. The lists presented by the groups "Traditionalist" and "Mr. Burton ”, winning the first.
Between 1950 and 1953 they went undefeated at home for 49 consecutive games, spanning three years and 17 days. The most remarkable thing in these years was in the lower divisions, where a team was champion of sixth, fifth, fourth and reserve between 1955 and 1958, from which values such as goalscorer Luis Suárez, Oscar Calics and Ezequiel Llanos emerged.