Argentina’s players were filmed chanting they would beat England “for the Malvinas” before Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final, thrusting the long-dormant Falklands dispute back into the global spotlight. The provocation came after a week of escalating rhetoric from Buenos Aires, including a newspaper article by foreign minister Pablo Quirno that dismissed the inhabitants of the islands as “artificially implanted” and rejected the 2013 referendum in which they voted overwhelmingly to remain British.
Victoria Villaruel, Argentina’s combative vice-president, deepened the rancour on the eve of the match by describing England as “usurping pirates”. The British government and Argentina’s head coach both tried to play down the dispute, but the first knockout-stage contest between the two nations since 1998 made that impossible.
“Argentina's players and officials reignited Falklands tensions ahead of World Cup semi-final with England.”
Behind the scenes, Donald Trump had fuelled the row last year. The former US president, closely allied with Argentina’s populist leader Javier Milei, was studying secret plans to back Buenos Aires over the Falklands – a dramatic shift that would have broken with decades of American support for Britain’s position. Trump’s intervention, never publicly confirmed, offered Milei encouragement to harden his stance just as he had been seeking to tone down the constant rhetorical battle over the archipelago.
The animosity between England and Argentina stretches far beyond football. The 1982 war over the British overseas territory claimed 900 lives in ten weeks, a trauma neither side has forgotten. Yet there had been glimmers of reconciliation. Milei, who took office promising to end the ban on weapons exports from Britain, had favoured a new partnership with London. The World Cup tie has derailed that rapprochement.
This is not the first time a match has stoked fury. England beat Argentina in the 1966 World Cup quarter-final in a game dubbed “the Battle of Wembley” in England and “the theft of the century” in Argentina. The England manager Alf Ramsey blamed his team’s poor performance on Argentine “animals”, while Argentina raged against a referee who sent off their captain and allowed Geoff Hurst’s goal to stand despite suspicions of offside. Most of the world, at the time, sided with Argentina.
Now, as the teams prepare to face each other again, the old wounds have reopened. Whether the bitterness on the pitch will echo through the diplomatic channels remains to be seen.