Falklands protests to FIFA about gamers’ flashing banner claiming Argentina owns islands
EXCLUSIVE: The Islands’ Government has written to world football’s governing body demanding it takes action over the ‘particularly insensitive’ banner which upset locals left ‘traumatised’ by Argentina’s 1982 invasion
Argentina players display Falklands banner after World Cup semi-final victory over England(Image: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
The Falklands’ government has protested to FIFA about players flashing a banner claiming Argentina owns the islands after their World Cup victory over England.
Fury erupted after a large white sign bearing black writing reading ‘Las Malvinas son Argentinas’ – thrown onto the pitch by fans – was paraded by some of the celebrating stars following their 2-1 semi-final triumph.
Asked about it on TV later midfielder Leandro Paredes said: “The Falklands will always be Argentinian.” The sign – which translates as ‘The Falklands are Argentinian’ – sparked outrage from the UK Government.
The Liberal Democrats have written to FIFA demanding all players involved are banned from Sunday’s World Cup final against Spain for breaching tournament rules barring them from making political statements at matches.
We can reveal the Falkland Islands Government has also penned a protest letter to world football’s governing body saying the move was ‘insensitive’ to locals who survived Argentina’s 1982 invasion and subsequent war with Britain – and demanding action against the South American country.
Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez with the banner(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A spokesman told the Daily Star: “The Falkland Islands Government is disappointed – though regrettably not surprised – that the Argentine football team decided to tarnish the result of last night’s World Cup football semi-final – a game that did not in any case involve the Falkland Islands.
“That said, it is hardly news to anyone that the people of the Islands were victims of an aggressive invasion in 1982 which left many traumatised.
“The banner displayed by Argentina last night, therefore, was particularly insensitive for many people in the Falklands.
“It is the avowed policy of the Falkland Islands Government that we do not wish to see politics being brought into sport.
“Nor do we wish the Islands and their people to be used as a political football in every conversation about England and Argentina.”
They said they welcomed the UK Government’s response – insisting the Islands would remain a British overseas territory – and added: “The World Cup has as one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football.
“We hope FIFA will make good on their promise to keep politics out of sport, and sanction all behaviour of this nature in line with its own rules.”
In a letter to FIFA Jack Ford, chair of The Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, said the players’ display of the banner was a ‘clear political statement’ in breach of tournament rules.
He said the war – which saw Britain having to remove invading Argentinians – had left islanders ‘traumatised’ and ‘causing such political acts as those after the game’ was ‘particularly insensitive to the people of the Falklands’.
In one of his last acts in office Brit Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer fired a potshot at the Argentina.
His spokesman said: “The World Cup might not be ours but the Falkland Islands definitely are.
“Our position is unchanged. Self-determination rests with the islanders and our commitment to the Falklanders will never waver.
“The PM wishes both teams well for the final – especially Spain.”
The drama happened after Argentina’s dramatic victory over the Three Lions in Atlanta on Wednesday.
In 1982 Argentina and the UK fought a 74-day war over the sovereignty of the South Atlantic islands – founded by a Brit sea captain in 1690 – in which 907 died.
In a 2013 referendum 99/8% of the islanders voted to stay British.
Fans celebrate Argentina’s victory beside the Falklands War veterans monument(Image: Cristian Urrutia / AFP via Getty Images)
But the Argentinians have continued to lay claim to the archipelago and raised the issue again ahead of the meeting between the two national teams at the World Cup.
Foreign minister Pablo Quirno backed the players’ banner stunt and lodged a formal protest to the British embassy in Buenos Aires about the movements of HMS Medway which he claimed sailed from the Islands into Argentinian waters last week.
No10 said the Argentines were notified and ‘proper process was followed in accordance with international law’ about the movements of the ship which was conducting routine logistics for a visit to Chile to support Antarctic research.
UK defence chiefs said Royal Navy vessels operating from the Falklands do not require Argentine authorisation to navigate in the South Atlantic.
But Quirno said his country ‘rejected the unconsulted movements of the British military vessel HMS Medway toward the Argentine continental coast’.
He said the warship was ‘illegally deployed’ and it constituted a ‘British military incursion into areas under Argentine jurisdiction’.
Quirno said the government ‘reaffirms Argentina’s sovereign rights over the Malvinas Islands just as the Argentine national team players did after their victory against England by displaying a flag’.
Manchester United defender Lisandro Martínez, ex-Manchester City star Nicolás Otamendi and former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Giovani Lo Celso were among the players seen holding the banner and jumping in celebration.
Lo Celso briefly laid it out on the turf.
The Falkland Islands’ Government House was lit up in the colour’s of the England flag for the match(Image: @GHFalklands/X)
In Buenos Aires more than a million fans gathered to celebrate the victory.
Some burned an England flag and a coffin painted with a St George’s Cross was hoisted above supporters’ heads.
Fans were filmed before the game burning English flags.
Business secretary Peter Kyle said the players’ display of the flag was ‘entirely inappropriate’ and FIFA should investigate the ‘egregious’ rule breach.
“Politics needs to be separate from football,” he said.
“In fact the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football.
“It was entirely inappropriate.”
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey wrote on X: “In August 2024 Rodri and Álvaro Morata were rightly banned for one match for singing ‘Gibraltar is Spain’.
“Now the Argentine players who celebrated with the ‘Falklands are Argentine’ banner must be barred from the final.”
FIFA – which did not respond to a request for comment – is likely to investigate but not until the tournament is over. Those involved would then face fines.
