FIFA is assessing reports from Argentina’s World Cup semi-final victory over England before deciding whether to open disciplinary proceedings over players displaying a banner declaring: “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Falklands are Argentine”).
Argentina’s players held up the banner after their 2-1 victory over England in Atlanta, prompting criticism from British officials, who argued the gesture breached FIFA’s ban on political messages on the field of play.
In a statement issued late Thursday, football’s world governing body confirmed it was reviewing the incident.
FIFA said: “As is standard procedure, FIFA’s independent disciplinary committee is currently assessing the match reports and considering the relevant circumstances before deciding on potential further steps based on the FIFA disciplinary code.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Downing Street office backed calls by Business Minister Peter Kyle for FIFA to investigate the matter.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are.”
Kyle described the banner display as a breach of FIFA regulations separating politics from football.
He told the BBC: “Politics needs to be separate from football.
“In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football.”
The incident has revived the long-running sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands, known as Las Malvinas in Argentina.
Argentina invaded the British Overseas Territory in 1982 before Britain regained control following a brief war ordered by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The conflict claimed the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 Britons.
FIFA has previously sanctioned Argentina over a similar incident.
In 2014, the Argentine Football Association was fined £20,000 after players posed with a banner carrying the same message before a friendly against Slovenia, with FIFA ruling that the display breached regulations on political action and team misconduct.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei defended the latest display, insisting it reflected national sentiment.
He told El Observador radio: “It’s a feeling that exists within all Argentines.”
Milei added: “The Malvinas are Argentine, we’re going to recover them, and we will do it through diplomatic means.”
Tensions had already risen before the semi-final after Argentina’s Vice President, Victoria Villarruel, described the English as “usurping pirates.”
Following the match, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno also announced that Buenos Aires had lodged a formal protest over the passage of Britain’s HMS Medway near the Falkland Islands.
Quirno wrote on X that Argentina expressed “the strongest rejection” of the vessel’s “unconsulted and illegal” passage through what it described as Argentine territorial waters.
