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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Argentine football for tourists (not anymore)

1:57 PM Unknown
     As a football fan and a club member of C.A. Tigre the AFA plus card is a great idea in theory.
    The idea behind it is to register all football fans and make it easier to keep out the Hooligans (Bara Brava's).  But to actually get one of these cards is proving to be very difficult. You need to attend your club on a Saturday morning and join a cue that stretches for many blocks. Once you reach the front of this line they give you an appointment to come back and do it all again on another day. But if you did not join the line early enough you are screwed because they only hand out so many appointments every Saturday. All of these appointments are for weekdays when you are very likely to be working, or don't wish to spend the early evening in a cue outside a football stadium when you should be home with your family.
   All of this is to gain the prize of an AFA plus card which contains all the latest hi tec bio metric info and is approved by the FBI and in use by many top European clubs including Real Madrid. Well if its so bloody hi Tec why can't a person ask for their appointment over the internet.
   Today I went to Tigre's ground and was told no more turns would be given out until Saturday. When I pointed out that half the people in the office were actually sitting there doing nothing the girl said I really don't know what to say to you and suggested I try and get a card from AFA at Ezieza.  Ezieza is 43km(26 miles) from my home. Is this really what football fans have to go through to see a match?.

TOURISTS
   I am a foreign person living in Buenos Aires and when I first moved here almost 10 years ago I did as many tourists do and signed up to go to a match with a tour company. I went to the superclassico of Boca at home to River.
But under these new rules that will either be impossible unless the clubs have no intention of enforcing the use of these cards. One or the other it can't be both.
   Will Boca and River have separate doors for foreign tourists?. Will Tigre just not allow them in?. I have brought scores of foreign fans to Tigre matches over the last few years and yet I find myself not even renewing my club membership at the moment because I am unprepared to jump through idiot hoops to get one of these dam cards.
    Millions of tourists visit Buenos Aires every year and 10's of thousand's of them do or would love to attend matches. That door now appears to be closed to them.
Basically if every day fans are having trouble getting these cards what chance does a tourist have.

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