The UK government has called on FIFA to investigate Argentina’s national team after its players displayed a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Falklands are Argentine”) following their 2-1 victory over England in the FIFA World Cup semi-final. According to AFP, the demand was made by British Business Minister……
The UK government has called on FIFA to investigate Argentina’s national team after its players displayed a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Falklands are Argentine”) following their 2-1 victory over England in the FIFA World Cup semi-final.
According to AFP, the demand was made by British Business Minister Peter Kyle, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Downing Street backing the call. Kyle described the banner display as an “egregious violation” of FIFA rules, which prohibit political symbols and messages on the field of play.
“The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Kyle urged football’s world governing body to investigate the incident.
“Politics needs to be separate from football. In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football,” he told BBC television.
“That is now a matter for FIFA … We expect FIFA to undertake an investigation into this,” he added.
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FIFA has not yet responded publicly to the calls.
The controversy stems from the long-running dispute over the Falkland Islands, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas. Argentina invaded the British Overseas Territory in 1982 before Britain regained control following a 74-day war that claimed the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 British personnel.
According to AFP, tensions had already risen before Wednesday’s semi-final after Argentina’s Vice President, Victoria Villarruel, referred to the English as “usurping pirates.”
Following Argentina’s victory, the country’s Foreign Minister, Pablo Quirno, announced that Buenos Aires had lodged a formal protest over the passage of Britain’s HMS Medway near the Falkland Islands.
Quirno said Argentina expressed “the strongest rejection” of what it described as the vessel’s “unconsulted and illegal” transit through Argentine territorial waters, alleging Britain failed to provide proper notification.
