Argentina players brandish political Falklands flag after England match

Argentina players displayed a political banner asserting sovereignty over the Falkland Islands following their 2-1 World Cup semifinal victory over England. Lisandro Martinez and Giovani Lo Celso held up the banner reading "Las Malvinas Son Argentinas" ("The Falklands are Argentinian") while grinning and waving to fans in the stands. The source of the banner was unclear.

FIFA's Stadium Code of Conduct explicitly prohibits "banners, flags, flyers, apparel and other paraphernalia that are of a political, offensive, and/or discriminatory nature" inside stadiums. World football's governing body did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the incident.

The sovereignty dispute over the South Atlantic islands—known as the Falklands to the British and the Malvinas to Argentinians—represents a long-standing point of tension between the two nations. The countries fought a brief military conflict in 1982 over the islands, resulting in 649 Argentine and 255 British military deaths. Britain prevailed, and the vast majority of the islands' residents have expressed a desire to remain under British sovereignty.

Argentina maintains that it inherited the islands from Spain following its independence in 1816 and contends that Britain's 1833 assumption of control constituted an illegal colonial act. The banner display was not the first instance of political messaging during the World Cup. Iranian Americans waved pre-revolutionary flags symbolizing protest against the Tehran government when Iran played in Los Angeles the previous month, though those matches proceeded without incident.