In the Way of the Chainsaw: Are Argentina's Famous Clubs to be Privatized?

There is a lot to say about Argentina and football that we are not saying today. There is a lot about Argentina and football that we are saying today. We’re even saying things about saying things about football in Argentina: Christopher Hylland joins me, an English author and educator with a Latin American past and a Norwegian present. His football-centric travel report Tears at La Bombonera is out since 2021, and he has just published a second one, a unique journey to the land where linguistics and football meet. The book is called Dame Bola: A Journey Through the Language of Argentinian Football. First, however, we discuss what is going on in Argentinian politics and football today, under the presidency of Javier Milei who is fulfilling his campaign promises to put a libertarian chainsaw to the Argentinian state and economy. Part of the flurry of reforms was a presidential decree to allow privatization in Argentinian football and turn clubs into limited liability companies, open to investors. This could be a historic change to what a sports, or soccer, club IS in Argentina. (There are some parallels to when Raphael Molter was here and we talked about 50+1 in Germany, and you know from other episodes as well that I really care about the role clubs can play in the community. Clubs, not companies.)

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Christopher Hylland on Milei's push to privatize (Substack, Free)

Christopher Hylland on Instagram and Bluesky

Dame Bola website

Dame Bola reviewed on Cultured Football

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Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/