RENOWNED worldwide for their sublime skills, Argentina’s footballers are a source of great pride to their countrymen. Yet few law-abiding Argentines hold their football league in similar high regard. Many of those involved in it are tainted by corruption, from club presidents down to security guards at matches. Money laundering in the system is thought to be rife. In a long-overdue effort to clean up the game, the government this month introduced new financial-disclosure requirements for the league and its teams. But these still pale in comparison with the scale of the problem.

Argentina has been under pressure to combat corruption since last June, when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body set up to fight money laundering, placed it on a “grey list” of countries whose efforts to root out wrongdoing do not measure up. Although the FATF did not single out football, it had expressed its concerns about money laundering in the game in a report published in July 2009, which made reference to Argentina. Inclusion on the grey list carries an implicit warning that a country risks ending up on the FATF’s notorious “black list” unless it makes progress. Countries in that category have, in the past, found it extremely difficult to do business with any of the FATF’s 34 members, which include big economies like America, Britain and France, as well as Mexico, another Latin American heavyweight.

Largely in response to the FATF’s criticisms, the government this month forced the Argentine Football Association, the sport’s national governing body, to adopt a new set of rules. For a start, it must file an annual report on every member of staff paid at least $13,800 a year (including bonuses, prizes and gifts), as must every club in the top two divisions of the league. They also have to provide details of payments they make to corporate sponsors, government officials and anybody else with whom they do business. Failure to disclose this information can result in a fine of up to $23,000. And if reports uncover evidence of illegal payments, the fine can be as much as ten times the sum involved. Unless the Argentine Football Association strictly enforces the new rules, the government says it will withdraw the $200m it provides each year so that football fans can enjoy televised matches free of charge.

None of this is likely to be sufficient to stop the rot. Corruption has flourished due largely to the activities of the so-called barrabravas, violent groups of fans with interests in organised crime. The story of their rise dates back to the 1950s, when officials started trading free tickets for fans’ votes, which they needed to win election to a club’s board. As these fans grew more powerful and demanding, they began to take illicit control of club affairs like ticketing and the sale of refreshments during matches. Today, club directors often owe their positions entirely to barrabravas. Footballers are also under their control, sometimes splitting wages with them. Players from Boca Juniors, Argentina’s most popular club, even visited Rafael Di Zeo (pictured), the former boss of the team’s barrabrava, when he was in jail (he was released in May 2010 after serving more than three years for assault).

Barrabravas have already taken some blame for the decline of several big clubs in recent years. The most notable case is that of River Plate, one of the oldest teams in Latin America, which was relegated to the second division last year for the first time in its 110-year history. Its demotion followed years of mismanagement and corruption—exacerbated by infighting between members of the club’s own barrabrava—that left it saddled with huge debts, forcing it to sell its most gifted players to wealthy European clubs.

The new rules are certainly a step in the right direction for Argentina. Besides making it harder for miscreants to launder money with impunity, the government has given the Argentine Football Association an incentive to police the system effectively by threatening to withdraw its funding of television coverage. But having shown scant regard for existing laws and regulations, the barrabravas seem unlikely to pay much heed to new rules on financial disclosure. If Argentina’s government is serious about ending the corruption, it will need to confront the gangs on the terraces and in the streets. That is an altogether tougher prospect.