Douglas (Haig) Mania
The CinC and Argentinian Football
This sounds like an April fools’ day wind up. Or something that AI has not got quite right, some good old fashioned #fakehistory. But no! it’s true, there is an Argentinian football team called ‘Club Atletico Douglas Haig’, and ‘Douglas Mania’ is their club website. Gary Sheffield mentions it in his biography of Douglas Haig, so it must definitely be true. The mention of it on a recent episode of ‘Oh What a Lovely Podcast’ a podcast (where ‘The First World War meets popular culture and the media’) made me regret not including this little gem of information in a recent article that I have written about Haig. I am not sure how many other army commanders have football teams named after them. Not many, I’m guessing.
Only last month we were watching the antics of Messi & Co (didn’t that seem to go on forever?) and the inevitable mention of a certain Boca Juniors player’s hand of God, but it’s fair to say ‘Club Atletico Douglas Haig’ are a lot less well known than that Buenos Aires based home club of Maradona. Wikipedia informs me that they play in ‘Torneo Argentino B which is one of two leagues that form the fourth level of the Argentine football league system made up of 100+ teams playing within eight regional zones across Argentina’. Knowing next to nothing about football, I am going to take Wikipedia’s word for this and conclude that ‘Club Atletico Douglas Haig’ are not a top tier football team. They did, however, win the Pergamino football league 26 times in their history.
So how did a football team in the city of Pergamino, Argentina, come to be home to a football team that is named after the CinC of the British expeditionary force in the first world war? The story goes back to 18th November 1918, a week after the armistice was signed, ending the hostilities on the Western Front. Argentina had been neutral throughout the conflict. It was home to many European immigrants and a number of these were employed on the railways. The club history section of the ‘Douglas Mania’ website describes how a group of railway workers decided to form a football club as they wanted to take part in local competitions. Their inaugural meeting was held in a room next to the water tank by the railway engine shed. However, to be able to be allowed to do this they had to obtain the consent of the chief of the central Argentine Railway (Mitre Railway) Ronald Leslie. Leslie allowed the club to be formed on the condition that it be named after Douglas Haig. The team adopted the name of the British CinC along with a red and black vertical striped jersey and, within 2 years, had won the association championships. All the meetings held during the formation of the club and the creation of its board of directors were held at the water tank – El Tanque.
It was not all plain sailing for the ‘Douglistas’. In the 1950s the national governing body decreed that the name of the club was not suitable and did not meet regulations, but it was too difficult to change the history of the club, not least when supporters chanted it from the terraces. Club members held their ground, and the name of Douglas Haig was retained.
It is unclear what Ronald Leslie’s connection with Haig was. Maybe he was a fellow Scot, or maybe it was simply out of respect for the hero of the hour who had led the British army. Afterall, as Gary Sheffield notes, ‘Haig emerged from the war a celebrity’. If anyone has any more info on this I would definitely be interested!
I believe a football jersey from ‘Club Atletico Douglas Haig’ is currently on display at the National WW1 Museum and Memorial in World Cup host venue Kansas City, as part of the celebrations surrounding the tournament. It is part of a special exhibition called ‘The Beautiful Game’ exploring the impact of football on people’s lives during the war. I did a search through the ‘Douglas Mania’ website (in Spanish with no translate button) to see if it was possible to acquire such a jersey but without success, I am not sure of the Spanish translation of ‘Club Merch’…
In their match last weekend, the ‘Douglistas’ drew 0-0 with ‘Club Atletico 9 de Julio’
‘mon, the Douglistas!
Gary Sheffield, The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army, Arum Press Ltd 2011.P344
https://ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk - Episode 71
David Tattersfield https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-1-articles/2021/july/Argentina-in-the-great-war
www.douglasmania.com.ar (All photos from ‘Douglas Mania’ except where noted otherwise.
National WWI Museum and Memorial. https://theworldwar.org/exhibitions/beautiful-game.
www.copaargentina.org/es/news/9901