Four out of 10 sports clubs in Argentina are worse off financially than in 2023, even though the majority have added new members for new activities since then, a new survey has revealed.
The Encuesta Nacional de Clubes (“National Club Survey”), carried out by consultancy group Táctica: Laboratorio del Deporte Argentino, provides a breakdown of how troubling economic times and measures introduced by President Javeir Milei’s government has affected the sector.
The results show a paradox repeated over time: there is more social demand, but fewer resources to sustain clubs.
Táctica presented its research a few weeks ago, at a virtual meeting with sports leaders from across the country. The presentation was headed by Ignacio Mazzola, who led the survey, and gathered leaders from institutions in Buenos Aires City, Buenos Aires Province (La Matanza, La Plata, Mar del Plata), the provinces of Misiones, Tucumán, La Rioja, Córdoba, Mendoza, La Pampa, Chubut and even Chile.
Most football clubs In Argentina are non-profit civil associations controlled by the members, who pay a monthly fee and have voting rights.
The survey, which consulted 325 institutions from all of Argentina’s provinces, classified clubs by three sizes: small (up to 250 active members), medium-sized (between 250 and 750) and large (over 750).
In all cases, financial variables are affecting the entire sector: 75 percent of small and medium-sized clubs said they had decided to increase members’ fee, though below inflation. They did so in a context where 95 percent of the population has faced rises in basic utilities: power, water, gas, Internet, private health insurance.
The gap between income and expenditure is increasingly wider, the survey shows.
State aid is also at a minimum. During 2024, the Milei government reduced funds earmarked for clubs by 61.4 percent in real terms from 2023. During the first half of 2025, the budget allocation was zero percent and only a quarter of institutions received aid from provincial governments, while 39 percent had municipal support. The remainder resorted to raising funds via private donations or raffles, fairs and fundraising events.
Even so, 38 percent received no support of any kind.
fragility is felt especially by those with smaller structures: 30 percent of respondents said they had downsized staff and 60 percent had lost collaborators. Among larger operations, figures were lower but equally significant: 15 percent of employees faced adjustment and 44 percent were working with fewer volunteers.
Meanwhile, investment in infrastructure is virtually non-existent. Barely 14 percent of small clubs were able to renovate its sporting equipment in its entirety, and only 30 percent of large ones were able to complete any kind of construction works.
Similarly, over 70 percent of institutions had to add extra activities to their offerings to support finances. The model of a club as a gathering, training and containment space holds on – but in increasingly fragile conditions.
Táctica’s national club survey thus leaves a final conclusion: the social fabric of Argentine sport – comprising local and religious institutions and even the clubs we watch and listen to on television every weekend – faces one of its most critical periods of the last decades.
With less state support, more bills, expenses and a growing social demand, they are struggling to make ends meet or receive external aid. They are doing their best to hold on.
by Guillermo P. Tardivo
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