UK Urges FIFA To Investigate Argentina Over Falklands Banner After World Cup Win

The British government is pressing FIFA to investigate Argentina’s national soccer team after players displayed a banner asserting sovereignty over the Falkland Islands on the pitch following their 2-1 World Cup semifinal win over England.

Argentina, trailing 1-0 with five minutes left, scored twice to beat England on Wednesday night in Atlanta and advance to Sunday’s final against Spain. In the celebrations that followed, midfielder Giovani Lo Celso — who did not play in the match — and defender Nicolas Otamendi held up a white banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas,” or “The Falklands are Argentinian,” before laying it on the field.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle called the display an “egregious violation” of FIFA’s ban on political symbols and demanded a “thorough” inquiry. “Politics needs to be separate from football. In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football,” Kyle told the BBC. “That is now a matter for FIFA. … We expect FIFA to undertake an investigation into this.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer‘s office backed the call Thursday. “The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

FIFA’s stadium code of conduct bars “banners, flags, flyers, apparel and other paraphernalia” of a political nature, and the sport’s rule-making body, IFAB, separately prohibits political slogans on players’ equipment. FIFA has not commented on whether it will act. The Argentine Football Association was fined $27,000 by FIFA in 2014 after players posed with an identical banner ahead of a friendly against Slovenia.

The Falklands, a British overseas territory roughly 300 miles off Argentina’s coast, have been under British administration since 1883, except for a two-month occupation by Argentine forces in 1982, which triggered a war that killed 649 Argentine and 255 British service members. Residents voted overwhelmingly to remain British in referendums in 1986 and 2013.

Tensions had escalated before kickoff, with Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel branding England “usurping pirates.” After the match, she posted archival footage of Argentine troops and wrote, “It wasn’t just another match.” Argentina’s foreign ministry separately protested what it called an “unconsulted and illegal” passage by the British warship HMS Medway near the islands this week. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had said before the game that he did not want the match to become about the territorial dispute.