ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I discuss the suitability of adopting foreign measures aimed at reducing football violence and implementing them in the Argentinian context. Contrary to the grand theory model proposed by some social scientists, I argue that violence, corruption, and politics in football need to be properly contextualized. Universal explanations are ill-equipped to account for the multiplicity of social, cultural, and historical factors that characterize the ties between football, violence, and politics in different countries. The interview material presented in this chapter suggests that foreign interventions often lack an in-depth understanding of the social circumstances and cultural features that impede the development of effective measures aimed at reducing violence in Argentinian football. On the other hand, solutions proposed by club officials and politicians often revolve around legal and punitive measures, which do little to discourage and disrupt the practices that promote violence, whether it is motivated by passion, economic interests, political interests, or a shared sense of belonging to a barra. Social scientists tend to distance themselves from solutions that involve punitive measures by proposing alternatives such as educational campaigns. The goal of these campaigns is to raise awareness of the ways that people think about violence in football. I suggest that a cultural transformation, including a change in mentality, needs to take place in Argentina if the solutions that are currently being proposed are to succeed in the long term. Taking this into consideration, I conclude by assessing the feasibility of producing cultural change under the current social, cultural, and political conditions.
