Football in South America

Football in South America is the most popular hobby and professional sport played by the continent's inhabitants.Football was introduced to South America in the nineteenth century thanks to the worldwide diffusion of British culture caused by the British diaspora and the acceptance of the sport by the region's Anglophile elite. Widely regarded as a symbol of modernity and good health, football overtime displaced older fashionable sports such as Bochas to become, by the middle of the twentieth century, the primary mainstream sport throughout most of the continent.

The sport's organization is governed by domestic federations (or associations) and continental confederations, all members of FIFA. Most South American federations are part of CONMEBOL (the South American Football Confederation), with the exception of associations from The Guianas, which are part of CONCACAF (the North American Football Confederation), and the Falklands Islands. Football's development is also organized by these domestic and international federations in conjunction with governmental sports authorities. Every country in South America has a unique football development structure with varying results, arguably some more successful than others.

Soccer held in South America originated in the nineteenth century. European sailors played the game in the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and it gradually spread into nearby urban areas. The European community in Buenos Aires was around 1867 large girth - many were from Britain and were employed by the British railway companies, which expanded the network on a large scale - and an unofficial league had formed: the so-called "Great British League ", which was divided into practice in an English and a Scottish league. Two English immigrants, Thomas and James Hogg, organized a meeting in the Argentine capital on May 9, 1867; on this day the first football club was established in Latin America, Buenos Aires Football Club. The Buenos Aires Cricket Club football club gave permission to use his cricket ground in Parque Tres de Febrero. More than a month after its creation played Buenos Aires Football Club there - on June 20 - his first football game. It was played with sixteen players on both sides eight players with only British nationality.

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