Argentina players celebrated their World Cup semi-final victory over England by displaying a banner that read 'Las Malvinas son Argentinas,' a direct reference to the 1982 Falklands War. The incident occurred after Argentina came from behind to win 2-1 in Atlanta, securing their place in the final against Spain.
Match Details and Banner Display
Argentina were trailing 1-0 with five minutes remaining in the semi-final but scored twice in quick succession to reach their second consecutive World Cup final. After the match, Lisandro Martínez and Giovani Lo Celso held up the banner, grinning and waving to fans. The banner's origin remains unclear.
The Falklands dispute, known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina, led to a 74-day conflict 44 years ago, resulting in 649 Argentine and 255 British casualties.
Political Reactions
UK Business Secretary Peter Kyle described the banner as 'entirely inappropriate,' stating, 'Politics needs to be separate from football. The World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football. That is now a matter for Fifa. I expect Fifa to do its investigation thoroughly.'
Argentina's security minister, Alejandra Monteoliva, announced enhanced security measures for the final, with 1,600 officers deployed. 'The entry of elements that have any type of provocative message, whether of political or racial content, is prohibited,' she told local radio.
Player Comments
Martínez, who plays for Manchester United, expressed deep emotions: 'I can picture a Malvinas veteran seeing that and weeping. I don't know if there might be sanctions or not, but what they did was display that banner and assert that the islands belong to us.'
Teammate Leandro Paredes added: 'Sadly, it is a sad part of our history, for everyone involved in that chapter of, I repeat, our history. And it hurts. We knew we were playing for them, too.'
Fifa Code of Conduct
Fifa's stadium code of conduct bans 'banners, flags, flyers, apparel and other paraphernalia that are of a political, offensive, and/or discriminatory nature' inside stadiums. Fifa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is not the first time political banners have appeared during the World Cup. Last month in Los Angeles, Iranian Americans waved pre-revolutionary flags as symbols of protest during Iran's matches, which proceeded without incident.
