When Argentina's national football team burst into the dressing room after beating Switzerland 3-1, they celebrated by singing The Fourth Star, the country's unofficial World Cup anthem. “For Malvinas, for Diego,” Lionel Messi and his teammates chanted, invoking both the Falkland Islands – known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina – and their football legend Diego Maradona. The lyrics had already become ubiquitous in Argentina during this tournament, but they took on a new significance once it was confirmed that Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final would once again pit Argentina against England.
Almost four decades after Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal and his celebrated solo strike helped Argentina triumph in one of football’s most politically charged matches – which followed the 1982 Falklands War between the two countries – Wednesday’s semi-final is once again being discussed, in both Argentina and the UK, as far more than a game.
“Argentina revive Falklands and Maradona tensions as they face England in World Cup semi-final.”
“Behind the Argentina team, there are people who still carry pain, who don’t want to forget their history, and who want to win on the football pitch,” said Pablo “Palmito” Quintana, the musician who wrote the song, explaining why he put “Malvinas” into the lyrics. Quintana, 30, was not alive during the war or during the 1986 quarter-finals, but agrees that these matches “are not just matches”.
“The 1986 match was a balm for everyone who had lived through the war,” said Aldo Leiva, a Falklands/Malvinas war veteran and Peronist congressman. “Football has rules and referees. There was none of that in the war. Many Argentines saw the victory – and the ‘hand of God’ – as a form of vindication because they believed Britain had acted outside the rules, especially by sinking the General Belgrano,” he said, speaking about the Argentine cruiser that was torpedoed and sunk by the British outside the agreed exclusion zone. The attack resulted in the deaths of 323 crew members.
The England stars of that 1986 match admit they cannot forgive and forget. Peter Shilton, England’s most capped player with 125 appearances, told BBC Radio 4: “The Hand of God goal is the most infamous in football for all the wrong reasons. I knew he had hand balled it. … Really, we were let down by officials, it is as simple as that.” Shilton, who shook hands with Maradona before the game, added: “I know Argentina sang their song after the last game. I don’t think they should do that, I don’t think they should stir things up. But the England team has the chance to get to the final and make history.”
Former England hero Terry Butcher admitted he still cannot bear to watch Maradona’s first goal. “I hate watching that goal now. It really sticks in my throat how he did it,” he told the Mirror at the screening of his TV documentary last month. Butcher, who won 77 England caps, said he “admired and respected” the current England side.
Now, with Messi fit to lead Argentina and England seeking to banish decades of political and footballing demons, Wednesday’s semi-final offers a chance for either redemption or renewed anguish – a fixture that, as Quintana put it, is “not just a match”.