By 1867 there was a wide British community living in Buenos Aires. Most of them had established there coming from the
United Kingdom as managers and workers of the British-owned railway lines that operated in Argentina. British citizens founded social and sports clubs where they could practise their sports, such as
bowls,
cricket,
football,
golf,
horse riding,
rugby union and
tennis amongst others. The "Buenos Aires Football Club" was founded on Thursday 9 May 1867 in Temple street, known today as Viamonte, in the city of
Buenos Aires. The founding members were railway workers who all came from northern England, specially brothers Thomas and James Hogg. The founding committee was formed by: Thomas Hogg, 24 years old, born in
Skelton, York,
Yorkshire; his brother James Hogg, 26 years old, born in
Skelton, York, Yorkshire; Thomas Jackson, 29 years old, born in
Cumberland; Thomas Barlow Smith, 21 years old, born in
Stoney Middleton,
Derbyshire; and Walter Heald, secretary, 29 years old, born in
Pendle,
Lancashire. Likewise, the rules of the club were as follows: • The club be called "The Buenos Aires Football Club". • The committee of four be elected to manage the affairs of the Club. • The subscription for the present season be
$ 30 currency. • The
rules of
The Football Association be adopted with some slight modifications. On August 9, the Buenos Aires Football Club was officially established. Seven months after the birth of BAFC, Thomas Hogg wrote a letter to
The Standard newspaper, in which he stated: It is recorded that in 1868 two matches were also played. In one of them, the Rojos defeated Whites by 2–1. Despite following the football association rules (although slight modifications had been introduced), most of the members preferred to follow the
rugby union rules, using the hands instead of their feet. That was because those members came from different cities of England, where football in each was played in a different way, often using the hands instead feet, or both. Therefore the members of BAFC played the game as they did in the towns of their birth, being a mix of football and rugby with no defined rules. As a consequence, on 13 May 1874 the club called its members to discuss the point "4" of its rules. On Thursday, 14 May 1874, the members met to discuss which rules they should follow. After the debate they finally decided to adopt the
laws of rugby union. That same day the first game under the rugby rules was played at David Mathven's country house, in
Caballito, Buenos Aires. The teams were called "Equipo de Mr. Trench" and "Equipo de Mr. Hogg". ==Notes==