England led 1-0 in the semifinal held in Atlanta on Wednesday, but conceded two late goals by Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez and failed to return to the World Cup final for the first time in 60 years.
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Celebrating the goal, the Argentinians took a poster from the fans that read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (i.e. “The Falklands belong to Argentina”).
This poster is related to the territorial dispute, which is called the Falkland Islands in the United Kingdom and the Malvinas Islands in Argentina. This dispute led to a 74-day war in 1982, initiated by the military junta then ruling Argentina.
At that time, the Argentinians claimed that the islands were illegally taken from their country in 1833. The British, who have claimed rights to the island since 1765, sent a warship to the islands in 1833 and expelled the Argentine forces who were then gradually trying to establish themselves there.
The war was ultimately won by the British, and more than 900 people died during the conflict – 649 Argentinians and 255 British.
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After several years, England and Argentina restored diplomatic relations, but the relationship between the countries thousands of kilometers apart remains cold, and Argentinians still refuse to recognize the United Kingdom’s sovereignty over the mentioned islands.
So even before the match with England, the Argentinians sang songs about how “The Malvinas belong to Argentina” and raised posters illustrating this, and after the match, some South American team players joined them, including Lisandro Martinez and Giovani Lo Celso, who held up the poster.
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This angered the British. The United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Business and Industry, Peter Kyle, stated that “the players’ behavior was intolerable, and FIFA must conduct a thorough investigation into this matter.”
Such an investigation could be conducted because FIFA’s disciplinary code states that “messages that are inappropriate for sporting events, including political, ideological, religious, or offensive messages, are prohibited in stadiums.”
Penalties for violating this rule range from 5 to 20 thousand US dollars.
However, it seems that possible sanctions for the Argentine team players do not bother them at all.
“We couldn’t disappoint our people,” said L. Martinez when asked about the controversial poster after the victory. Interestingly, he has been playing for none other than an English club – Manchester United – for the past four years.
“Unfortunately, this is a sad part of our history,” added another member of the Argentine team, Leandro Paredes. “It is sad for everyone who was part of this history. It still hurts us. We knew we were playing for those people too.”
This would not be the first time FIFA took sanctions for a similar incident. In 2014, the Argentinians displayed the same message on a poster during a World Cup preparation match, and FIFA fined the Argentine Football Federation 30 thousand Swiss francs (about 34 thousand euros).
The last country to be punished for an inappropriate message during the World Cup was Serbia. In 2022, the Serbian Football Federation had to pay 20 thousand Swiss francs (about 22 thousand euros) when Serbian footballers hung a poster in the locker room after a match stating that Kosovo belongs to Serbia.
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