{"id":940077,"date":"2026-07-17T01:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/940077\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T01:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T01:40:14","slug":"fifa-to-probe-argentinas-falklands-banner-display-at-world-cup-semifinal-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/940077\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA to probe Argentina\u2019s Falklands banner display at World Cup semifinal | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIFA has opened an investigation into Argentinian players\u2019 display of a political banner<\/a> after their World Cup semifinal victory<\/a> over England, a move that violated its stadium code of conduct and struck a nerve in the United Kingdom over political sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Defender Lisandro Martinez and unused substitute Giovani Lo Celso held up a banner reading \u201cLas Malvinas son Argentinas\u201d, meaning \u201cThe Falklands are Argentinian\u201d, as they celebrated the win on the pitch, grinning and waving to fans in the stands after securing a dramatic comeback win on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The move sparked a row in the UK, where top government officials urged FIFA to investigate the matter and the global governing body confirmed it had launched a probe as a \u201cstandard procedure\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA\u2019s 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,\u201d a FIFA spokesperson told Al Jazeera on Thursday.<\/p>\n

It was unclear where the banner in question had come from, but FIFA can prosecute Argentina\u2019s players and football federation for violating its disciplinary code at stadiums, which prohibits any \u201cmessage that is not appropriate for a sports event\u201d, including those of \u201ca political, ideological, religious or offensive nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s fines for political messaging range from about $5,000 to $20,000.<\/p>\n

Argentina will defend their World Cup title when they take on Spain in the World Cup final on Sunday at New York New Jersey Stadium.<\/p>\n

When asked on Wednesday if the banner could have stirred deep emotions for veterans of the conflict, Martinez said: \u201cWe couldn\u2019t let the Argentine people down.\u201d Martinez has played his club football in England for the past four years with Manchester United.<\/p>\n

UK calls for FIFA to investigate \u2018egregious violation\u2019<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, British Business Minister Peter Kyle had called on FIFA to investigate<\/a> the \u201cegregious violation\u201d of FIFA rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,\u201d a Downing Street spokesperson said. \u201cSelf-determination rests with the islanders and our commitment to the Falklands will never waver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argentina invaded the British overseas territory in the South Atlantic in 1982.<\/p>\n

But the United Kingdom regained the archipelago in a brief war after then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched a naval force.<\/p>\n

Kyle urged football\u2019s global governing body to \u201cthoroughly\u201d investigate the banner incident after Wednesday\u2019s match in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics needs to be separate from football. In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football,\u201d he told BBC television.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is now a matter for FIFA. \u2026 We expect FIFA to undertake an investigation into this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Britain occupied the Falklands in the 19th century, but Argentina claims the islands are part of its territory.<\/p>\n

\"Argentina'sArgentina\u2019s players hold a banner reading \u2018The Malvinas [Falkland Islands] belong to Argentina\u2019, after winning the 2026 World Cup semifinal match between England and Argentina at the Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta on July 15, 2026 [AFP]<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s President Javier Milei described the players\u2019 celebration with the banner as \u201cperfectly valid\u201d, saying the message \u201creflects a sentiment shared by all Argentinians\u201d. But he said he expected FIFA to sanction the team with a fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the players do is understandable; they get carried away by their emotions, they act on impulse, and that will likely lead to discussions about a fine,\u201d Milei told a local Buenos Aires radio station.<\/p>\n

Argentinian Vice President Victoria Villarruel upped the tensions before Wednesday\u2019s kickoff by calling the English \u201cusurping pirates<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n

The 1982 conflict ended with the deaths of 649 Argentinians and 255 Britons.<\/p>\n

After their World Cup semifinal victory, Argentina\u2019s foreign minister said Buenos Aires had filed a formal protest over a British warship near the Falkland Islands.<\/p>\n

Pablo Quirno posted on X to express \u201cthe strongest rejection\u201d of the UK\u2019s HMS Medway\u2019s \u201cunconsulted and illegal\u201d passage through Argentinian territorial waters, alleging a lack of proper notification.<\/p>\n

Quirno said the Medway, which is based in the Falkland Islands, was accused of violating bilateral agreements in a diplomatic note of protest dated on Monday and submitted to the UK embassy in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

Previous cases<\/p>\n

Argentina players showed the same \u201cLas Malvinas son Argentinas\u201d slogan at a warm-up game in June 2014 in Buenos Aires for the World Cup that started days later in Brazil.<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s disciplinary panel ruling in that case was published after the tournament finished and fined the Argentina federation 30,000 Swiss francs ($37,000).<\/p>\n

A FIFA disciplinary case under previous leadership banned a South Korean player<\/a> for two 2014 World Cup qualifying games because he held up a similar banner about a territorial claim against Japan at the 2012 London Olympics. Park Jong-woo took a fan banner with the slogan \u201cDokdo is our territory\u201d after South Korea beat Japan in the men\u2019s bronze medal game. FIFA\u2019s ruling said the conduct of the South Korea player \u201ccannot be tolerated\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the 2022 World Cup, FIFA fined the Serbia federation 20,000 Swiss francs ($24,800) for hanging a political banner about neighbouring independent state Kosovo in the locker room before playing Brazil. It showed a map of Serbia that included the territory of Kosovo, which has been an independent state since 2008, and the slogan \u201cNo Surrender\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFA has opened an investigation into Argentinian players\u2019 display of a political banner after their World Cup semifinal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":940078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[2841,18297,440,1318,1612,50,1926,376,72,103,105860],"class_list":["post-940077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-argentina","tag-border-disputes","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us-canada","tag-world","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116932774839416461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}