Argentina’s players have been accused of dragging their World Cup victory “into the gutter” after waving a banner claiming the Falkland Islands for Argentina, prompting a furious reaction from Falklands war hero Simon Weston.
Two late goals from Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez, both set up by Lionel Messi, saw the defending champions beat England 2-1 in Wednesday’s semi-final in Atlanta — snatching a win that had seemed improbable after Anthony Gordon gave the Three Lions the lead in the 55th minute.
“Falklands war hero Simon Weston says Argentina players cheapened their World Cup win by waving a sovereignty banner.”
As Argentina celebrated, players held up a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Falkland Islands are Argentinian”), a reference to the long-running sovereignty dispute over the British overseas territory, which Argentina invaded in 1982 before being defeated in a short but bloody war.
Weston, who was injured in the conflict during the bombing of the RFA Sir Galahad, told The Independent the stunt caused him “great sadness at the lack of professionalism, the lack of maturity of the Argentine players.”
“It also made me very sad for the Falkland Islanders, who have made it clear who they want to govern them,” he said. “It's not for others to tell people who they should align with. That's called freedom; it's called democracy.”
The banner came despite Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni earlier saying he did not want the fixture to be framed by the conflict. But the country’s vice-president Victoria Villarruel tweeted a victory message calling England “invaders” and “usurping pirates”, and Argentina’s foreign minister Pablo Quirno had described the islanders as an “artificially implanted” population, dismissing a 2013 referendum in which they voted to remain a UK territory.
Weston called on Fifa to act, noting that Article 34.3 of tournament rules prohibits political messages. “This was a home… [text cuts off in source]” he said, adding: “Even during a football match, which is supposedly peaceful entertainment, they brought politics in and dragged their victory into the gutter.”
Back in England, fans watched in dismay as the dream of a first final since 1966 evaporated. Pubs across the country were packed: the British Beer and Pub Association reported an extra six million pints sold — a 75% increase on a typical July weekday, with some outlets busier than on New Year’s Eve. Greene King said it had 50,000 bookings across 1,000 pubs, while Marston’s reported sales doubling during England’s quarter-final win over Norway.
Outside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, England fan Ben Harper, 32, from Stoke-on-Trent, was scathing about manager Thomas Tuchel’s tactics. “When they scored and it went 1-1, you’re thinking to yourself, the momentum is in their favour – what have we got?” he said. “We’ve reduced our attacking outlets, we haven’t got many options – I think that was a tactical disaster honestly.”
Harper said the team was set up “for failure”: “I hate to say this because I’ve been a big fan of this manager – I think Southgate got us where we are today, he made us love the team again. And Tuchel, we all thought he was a tactical genius. But today, I’m sorry, we surrendered the game.”