Boca explains membership drop: historic clean-up and deal with RENAPER | OneFootball

The recent annual survey published by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) has had a strong impact on the sports world by revealing the updated figures of the membership base of First Division clubs. The most talked-about data was that of Boca Juniors, which showed a marked administrative decrease: from the 323,586 members registered in 2024, the official figure dropped to 282,644 for the first months of 2026. This difference of almost 41,000 people raised questions among fans and the specialized press.

In response to the impact of these numbers, Ricardo Roscia, General Secretary of the Boca institution, gave an interview to Cadena Xeneize to reassure everyone and explain the nature of this accounting adjustment. The official was emphatic in clarifying that this is not a massive exodus of members, but rather a process of “regularization” and technical cleansing of records that had not been carried out for decades. According to Roscia, the registry was tainted with outdated information that even, incredibly, included the club’s number one member, who has already passed away.

The key piece for this update was a strategic agreement signed with the National Registry of Persons (RENAPER). Through this agreement, the club from La Ribera was able to cross-check its database with the State’s official death records, detecting a large number of people who were still listed as active but had already died. “There were deceased people whom nobody notified the club about, and they remained on the registry,” the secretary confessed, stressing that this “clean-up” process was a long-overdue administrative obligation.

Besides the deceased, the cleansing also included delinquent members. Roscia explained that they found cases of people who had stopped paying their dues as far back as 2010 or 2015. Although the club’s bylaws establish automatic removal after six months of non-payment, the management admitted to having made an exception during the 2020 pandemic, a period during which regularization of dues was not required. However, for 2026, it was decided to normalize the situation, leaving on the list only those who truly maintain their commitment to the institution.

Despite this reduction, Boca remains in second place among the clubs with the largest social support in the country, only surpassed by River Plate, which tops the list with 352,712 members. The “Top 10” of Argentine football is completed by Independiente with 165,262, followed by Rosario Central and Racing, both of which surpass the 100,000-member mark, consolidating the phenomenon of member participation in local clubs.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.