Experiencing matchday at La Bombonera

Anyone who follows football with more than a passing interest will have heard of the famous atmosphere at La Bombonera, the home of Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires. Videos regularly circulate on social media showcasing an atmosphere that few stadiums or fanbases in the world can match.

It is notoriously difficult to get tickets to a match at La Bombonera. A history of violence amongst football hooligans means that away supporters are now banned from attending matches and home supporters are required to be a socio (member) of the club in order to access tickets.

Consequently, unless you know a socio -  or you pay hugely inflated fees for unreliable tickets online - gaining access is impossible. Fortunately for me, Matias, the cousin of my girlfriend, is a passionate supporter of Boca and was very keen to share his club with an ‘Englishman’.

As it turned out, the match we were to attend was an important one, with a victory potentially taking Boca top of the table with only five games remaining of the season. Consequently, tickets were in high demand even amongst socios and therefore limits had been placed by the club. Only fans who had attended nine or more matches already that season could access tickets; for Matias, as a father of two young children, this was impossible.

Fortunately, as a long-term, loyal fan he knew where to find alternative tickets and so on the day of the match we headed to collect them. Just a couple of blocks from the stadium we stopped at a parked double-decker bus where a group of men were gathered. For 12,000 pesos (about £30) they provided us with our way into the stadium.

Matias informed me these men were actually from Mendoza, a city in the west of Argentina about 13 hours drive from the capital. These men drive in every matchday on their bus to re-sell tickets. Initially this seemed to me to not be worth the effort until I saw the initial price of the ticket was just 1,500 pesos. Having seen how many tickets these men possessed, the profit was clearly enough to make the drive more than worth it.

In possession of our tickets, we needed to walk to the other side of the stadium, which allowed us to take in the matchday atmosphere. The streets for two blocks in every direction from the stadium were streaming with fans all decked out in blue and gold. Not just shirts but full Boca tracksuits, coats, hats and more were on display, as if there was a competition for who could wear the most Boca-branding clothing.

Buses overflowing with supporters constantly filed past, each with supporters young and old dangling from the windows chanting and waving their arms. This action of waving the upper-arm up and down from the elbow is a very Argentinian expression - not just amongst Boca or football fans - and one that was to be on constant display throughout the match to impressive effect when done by so many simultaneously.

The process of getting into the stadium actually begins from two blocks away, with three lines of security, organised by both the police and the club, to pass through. We were patted down and required to show our tickets and IDs. Matias had been expecting questions and prepped me to tell security that he was from Mendoza and I was his cousin visiting from the UK. In the end it seemed that I was checked less than anyone else, with my British passport seemingly meaning I was seen as a harmless tourist and not a potential threat.

We were in the stadium ninety minutes before the scheduled kick-off but already the stadium was half-full and the atmosphere growing. When buying the tickets we had been initially given seats at the north end of the stadium which Matias had asked to swap. He told me that the north was where the ultras were based and the chaos was too much even for him. Instead, in the south we would be at the ‘calmer’ end…

A striking thing for me was that the whole stand was for standing supporters, something that has not existed in the UK since before I was born. In hindsight I now realise seats would be a worthless addition as no fan would spend any time using them anyway.

Within thirty minutes of kickoff the stand was full and the chants had begun. This would not end until long after the match. The strength of the vocal cords amongst the supporters was truly remarkable, and of far greater quality than the football on show.

La Bombonera has been home to some legendary footballers, no more so than Diego Maradona, who is still worshipped by the fans there. Currently, however, no such legends play on the sacred turf and the football provides a truly dull spectacle. I recently read Jonathan Wilson’s Angels with Dirty Faces, a book on the history of Argentinian football which I highly recommend; in it he wrote that:

‘Football is another Argentinian dream that has slipped away. For Argentinians to see the best their country can produce, they must look either to the past or abroad. Argentinian football has become something that is played elsewhere’

From what I saw, it is hard to argue. What remains is of lower league English football standard, dominated by aggression, with little skill or technique to be seen.

This, however, is seemingly irrelevant to those in the stands. An overawing atmosphere filled the stadium for the entire match; the singing incessant. At random and regularly occurring times the atmosphere would grow to a crescendo, with the fans bouncing and waving their arms dramatically. I say at random as these moments were undoubtedly unrelated to the nothingness that was generally being played out on the pitch. In these moments I could literally feel the whole stand moving from side to side as if the energy of the supporters was being absorbed into the stadium and making it one with those who filled it.

When there was, finally, a goal late in the second-half it was fortunately for Boca. It was hard to imagine that the atmosphere could really be any more intense, but the added emotion of the supporters could be felt amongst the flailing limbs and deafening cheering.

Besides the goal, the only other point of interest came in the final minutes when a brawl broke out and resulted in three red cards (one for Boca). I would have expected the crowd to simultaneously grow in aggression as their players did but surprisingly things in the stands changed little from the regular chaos; the incident was at the opposite end of the pitch so perhaps people, like me, simply couldn’t tell what was happening.

When the final whistle was blown there was no rush for the doors and the crowd stayed in place. Gradually people slowly filtered out but even twenty minutes later, with the players long gone, the stands were plenty full. Those that did leave were certainly not going far as the party simply moved to the streets.

I did not visit La Bombonera due to an intense desire to see the team play. I went, as many do, to experience the famous atmosphere and it did not disappoint.

Gracias Matias.

Posted: 11/10/2022

Written by: Tom Taylor (@tomtayloor)