MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina could face FIFA action over Falklands banner after beating England

The banner was reportedly thrown from the stands. FIFA's code of conduct prohibits political flags and items inside stadiums. Photo: SHAUN BOTTERILL / GETTY IMAGES

Argentina could face disciplinary action from FIFA after several of its players celebrated their World Cup semifinal win over England with a banner supporting Argentina's claim to the Falklands. The defending champions came from behind in Atlanta to win 2-1 and reach Sunday's final against Spain.

After the final whistle, Argentine players — among them Lisandro Martínez, Giovani Lo Celso, and Nicolás Otamendi — posed with a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Falklands are Argentine”). According to several accounts, the banner was thrown from the stands and picked up by the players on the pitch. FIFA's stadium code of conduct prohibits flags and items of a political nature inside venues. As of this writing, the governing body had not announced the opening of proceedings or a sanction.

The Falklands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic, remain the subject of a sovereignty dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina. The two countries fought a 74-day war in 1982, which began with the invasion of the islands by Argentina's then military junta, and in which 655 Argentine servicemen, 255 British servicemen, and three islanders died.

The episode has a direct precedent: in 2014, FIFA fined the Argentine Football Association (AFA) around £20,000 after its players displayed a banner with the same message before a friendly against Slovenia, ruling that it breached rules on political messages and team misconduct.

Argentina's vice-president, Victoria Villarruel, reinforced the message after the match. “The Falklands are Argentine,” she wrote on the social network X, adding: “They banned bringing them to the stadium and forgot that we carry them in our blood and our hearts.” Before the game she had said the match was about “putting the invaders in their place.”

In the United Kingdom, Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle called the banner “entirely inappropriate” and anticipated that FIFA would investigate, describing it as a violation of the rules barring political activity in football.

Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni had distanced himself before the match. “The reality is that this is a football match. I can't mix things up, especially out of respect for what happened so many years ago,” he said. The semifinal was played under heightened security because of the historical tensions between the two nations.