The Argentine Football Association ( es, Asociación del Fútbol Argentino, ; AFA) is the governing body of

football in Argentina Association football is the most popular sport in Argentina and part of the culture in the country. It is the one with the most players (2,658,811 total, 331,811 of which are registered and 2,327,000 unregistered; with 3,650 clubs and 37,161 off ...

based in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. It organises the main divisions of Argentine league system (from Primera División to Torneo Regional Federal and

Primera D The Primera D is one of two leagues that form the fifth division of the Argentine football league system. Made up of 11 clubs from Buenos Aires Province, the league is the only one that remains amateur. The other league at level five is the Torne ...

), including domestic cups:

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), with the aim of qual ...

Copa de la Liga Profesional The Copa de la Liga Profesional (English: ''Professional League Cup''; officially named "Copa Diego Armando Maradona" in its first edition) is an official Argentine football cup competition. The cup was planned and organised by the "Liga Profesi ...

and the

Trofeo de Campeones de la Liga Profesional The Trofeo de Campeones de la Liga Profesional is an official national football cup of Argentina organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), and contested by the winners of Primera División and Copa de la Liga Profesional. The comp ...

. The body also manages all the Argentina national teams, including the Senior, U-20, U-17, U-15,

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

and

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

squads. Secondly, it also organizes the

, children, youth,

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

, and other local leagues. The AFA also organised all the Primera División championships from 1893 to 2016–17. From the 2017–18 season the "

Superliga Argentina The Superliga Argentina de Fútbol, (officially "Superliga Profesional del Fútbol Argentino") was an Argentine sports association responsible for administering the main professional league of Argentine football, the Primera División, between ...

", an entity which was administrated independently and had its own statute, took over the Primera División championships.El fútbol que viene asomando
by Gustavo Veiga, Página/12, 28 Jun 2017 Nevertheless, the Superliga was contractually linked with the main football body. The last championship organised by the Superliga was 2019–20, shortly after the season ended the body was dissolved.Reunión clave en el fútbol argentino: Tapia recibió a los principales dirigentes de Primera con la idea de ponerle fin a la Superliga
on Infobae, 26 Feb 2020

History

The Argentine Association Football League (in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

) was founded on 21 February 1893 by

Alexander Watson Hutton Alexander Watson Hutton (10 June 1853 – 9 March 1936) was a Scottish teacher and sportsman who is considered "The Father of Argentine football". In 1893 he founded the "Argentine Association Football League" (current Argentine Football Ass ...

, considered "the father" of Argentine football. The Argentine Association is the oldest in South America and one of the oldest to be formed outside

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. In 1906 Florencio Martínez de Hoz became the first Argentine-born president of the association. In 1912 the president of Gimnasia y Esgrima (BA), Ricardo Aldao, broke up with the association establishing an own league, the "

Federación Argentina de Football The Federación Argentina de Football (FAF) was a dissident football association of Argentina that organised its own championships from 1912 to 1914. The Argentine Football Association did not recognised those championships until both associations ...

" which organized a parallel tournament. Some teams moved to the FAF were Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP), Independiente, Estudiantes (LP) and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. The league lasted until 1914 when rejoining ''Asociación Argentina de Football'' forming a unique league for the 1915 season. The second dissident league was formed in 1919 and named "

Asociación Amateurs de Football The Asociación Amateurs de Football (AAmF) was a dissident football association of Argentina that organised its own championships from 1919 to 1926. The Argentine Football Association did not recognise those championships until both associations ...

", organizing its own championships (as FAF had done) until 1926 when it merged to the official association. The dissident league included some of the most prominent teams such as River Plate,

Racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

, Independiente and San Lorenzo, with the exception of

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

that remained in the official "Asociación Argentina de Football". When both leagues merged for the 1927 season, the association was again renamed to "Asociación Amateur Argentina de Football" until the professionalization of the sport in 1931 when it switched to "

Liga Argentina de Football The Liga Argentina de Football (LAF) was a dissident football association of Argentina that organised its own professional championships from 1931 to 1934. The Argentine Football Association (that had remained amateur) did not recognise those cham ...

". The first round of the recently created professional championship was on 31 May 1931. Despite football turning professional in Argentina, some clubs wanted to remain amateur so they formed a new league, the "Asociación de Football Amateur y Profesionales", which organized a parallel tournament until 1934 when the dissident association merged with LAF on 3 November 1934 to form the "Asociación del Football Argentino" which has remained since. In 2015, during the presidential elections to elect a new president for the body, there were two candidates to occupy Julio Humberto Grondona's chair,

Marcelo Tinelli Marcelo Hugo Tinelli (born 1 April 1960) is an Argentine television host, media producer and businessman, best known as the host of the TV show '' Showmatch'' broadcast on Argentina's El Trece. One of the most famous supporters of Club San Lor ...

–who wanted a change in how things were going, like eliminating corruption between some clubs and the AFA– and

Luis Segura Luis Segura (born in Mao, Dominican Republic year 1939), is a popular traditional Dominican singer who refers to himself as 'The Father of Bachata'. He is considered one of the best interpreters of traditional bachata Traditional bachata is a s ...

, who had taken charge after Grondona's death, with the intention of extending his mandate. With 75 presidents of different Argentine clubs voting, on election day something went wrong when the final count resulted in a draw of 38 to 38 (76 votes in total). The explanation given was that one of the electors put a double vote and that mistake was not reported. As a result, the executive committee decided to postpone the election. After some meetings to put an end to the conflict, both candidates agreed to have another election in June 2016. In June 2016, AFA president

was charged with "aggravated administrative fraud". Segura has been replaced on an interim basis by the AFA's executive secretary, Damián Dupiellet. In 2017, the association approved the creation of a new entity, named " Superliga Argentina de Fútbol", which would take over the organization of Primera División championship. The main European football leagues such as the

English Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

or the

Spanish La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

, that are organized by associations dedicated exclusively to those championships and run as separate entities from their respective National Associations, served as inspiration for the creation of the Superliga. The 2016–17 Primera División championship was the last tournament organized by the AFA. Starting with the 2017–18 season to 2019–20 season, the "Superliga Argentina", an entity administrated by itself with its own statute, organised Primera División championships. In March 2020, AFA dissolved the Superliga and took over the Primera División again.

Names

The body has been renamed several times since its establishment in 1893, in most of the cases translating the original English names to Spanish. The list of names is the following: * Argentine Association Football League (1893–1903) * Argentine Football Association (1903–1912) * Asociación Argentina de Football (1912–1927) * Asociación Amateur Argentina de Football (1927–1931) * Asociación de Football Amateurs y Profesionales (1931–1934) * Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (1934–present)

Current staff

As of October 2021: * President: Claudio Tapia * Vice-presidents: **

Jorge Amor Ameal Jorge Amor Ameal (born Berazategui, Buenos Aires, 1948), is an Argentina, Argentine gastronomic entrepreneur, and current President of Boca Juniors after winning the elections in 2019. He became the club's first Vice-President, following the form ...

Rodolfo D'Onofrio Rodolfo is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Rodolfo (footballer, born 1992), Brazilian footballer Rodolfo José da Silva Bardella *Rodolfo Albano III, Filipino politician * Rodolfo Vera Quizon Sr. (1928-2012), Filipino actor ...

Hugo Moyano Hugo Moyano (born January 9, 1944) is an Argentine labour leader who was Secretary General of the CGT, the nation's largest trade union, from 2004 to 2012. A schism developed within the CGT during 2012, and Moyano was elected to head the CGT's dis ...

** Marcelo Achile ** Guillermo Raed * General Secretary: Víctor Blanco * Treasurer: Pablo Toviggino * Executive Secretary: Nicolás Russo * Men's senior head coach:

Lionel Scaloni Lionel Sebastián Scaloni (; born 16 May 1978) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who currently coaches the Argentina national team. A versatile player, he operated as a right-back or right midfielder. Born in Puj ...

* Men's U-20 head coach:

Javier Mascherano Javier Alejandro Mascherano (born 8 June 1984) is an Argentine professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Argentina national under-20 team. As a player, he played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder, most not ...

Women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

head coach: Carlos Borrello * National teams General Director:

César Luis Menotti César Luis Menotti (; born 5 November 1938), known as ''El Flaco'' ("Slim"), is an Argentine former football manager and player who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as the head coach of the Argentina national team. During his playing days, he pl ...