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<\/p>\nDowning Street has backed calls for FIFA to investigate whether Argentina players broke rules by brandishing a banner in support of their country’s claim to the Falkland Islands at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman echoed remarks made earlier by UK Business Secretary Peter Kyle, who said the governing body should “thoroughly” probe the behaviour of the defending champions after they beat England 2-1 in last night\u2019s match in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
“The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
“Our position is unchanged. Self-determination rests with the islanders.<\/p>\n
“Our commitment to the Falklands will never waver.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The official said any potential action is a “matter for FIFA”, but asked whether the Prime Minister agrees with his Cabinet minister that there should be an investigation, replied: “I would echo that position.”<\/p>\n
Asked whether Downing Street agrees with Mr Kyle\u2019s characterisation of the behaviour as an “egregious violation” of the rules, she added: “Any action taken is a matter for FIFA, I\u2019ll leave it for them.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019d point you to the Business Secretary\u2019s words this morning.”<\/p>\n
Argentina fans celebrated their victory jubilantly, with some near the pitch holding a banner which read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, which translates to “The Falkland Islands are Argentinian”.<\/p>\n
The sign, referring to the dispute over the British overseas territory, eventually made its way to the players, who held it up as they revelled in their win.<\/p>\n
They are set to face disciplinary action for violating Article 34.3 of the tournament\u2019s rules prohibiting the display of any political messages or slogans by players before, during or after a match.<\/p>\n
‘Politics needs to be separate from football’<\/p>\n
Asked about members of the team waving the banner, Mr Kyle told BBC Breakfast: “My reaction is that it was entirely inappropriate.<\/p>\n
“Politics needs to be separate from football.<\/p>\n
“In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football.”<\/p>\n
He said: “We expect FIFA to undertake an investigation into this.<\/p>\n
“I think it was certain to happen because it was such an egregious violation of the rules of not having political activity as part of the football.”<\/p>\n
On Times Radio, the minister praised Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side for their “dignity”, which he said stood in “perfect contrast” to the Argentina team\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n
Political tensions between Argentina and Britain over the territory have lingered for decades, after boiling over into a short but bloody war in 1982.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/002459cf-614.jpg\"\/)
\n‘Our position is unchanged. Self-determination rests with the islanders,’ a spokeswoman said<\/p>\n
Buenos Aires has repeatedly claimed sovereignty over the islands, which are about 13,000km from the UK and 480km from mainland Argentina.<\/p>\n
In a 2013 vote, the islanders overwhelmingly backed keeping their status as a British overseas territory, but Argentine foreign minister Pablo Quirno has suggested this referendum was illegitimate.<\/p>\n
Days before the semi-final clash, he used an essay in La Nacion newspaper to claim the population had been “artificially implanted by the occupying power”, which was flatly rejected by Downing Street.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Argentina has lodged a diplomatic protest with the UK over what it called the “unlawful” movement of a Royal Navy patrol ship near the South Atlantic archipelago.<\/p>\n
In an official statement shared on X after the semi-final, the country\u2019s foreign affairs ministry expressed its “strongest rejection” of the movements of HMS Medway and accused Britain of a “military incursion” into its waters.<\/p>\n
No 10 said the UK had notified Argentina in advance of undertaking a routine logistics visit and the British Navy “always operates in full compliance with international law”.<\/p>\n
Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni had said before the game he did not want the fixture to become about the conflict over the territory.<\/p>\n
But the country\u2019s vice-president Victoria Villarruel tweeted a victory message at full-time saying “it wasn\u2019t just another match”, alongside a video of what appeared to be Argentinian soldiers.<\/p>\n
In the build-up to the fixture, she had described England as “invaders” and “usurping pirates”.<\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called for Argentina\u2019s players who celebrated with the Falklands banner to be suspended from the World Cup final.<\/p>\n
And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wrote on X: “The Falkland Islands are British.<\/p>\n
“The Conservatives will always defend them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downing Street has backed calls for FIFA to investigate whether Argentina players broke rules by brandishing a banner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-552841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}