An Argentina fan is believed to have revealed how he snuck the infamous flag claiming his country’s right to the Falkland Islands into the stadium to give to the players – who paraded it for all to see after defeating England 2-1 in Atlanta.
FIFA could yet hand the players who unfurled the banner on Wednesday evening a sanction ahead of their World Cup final against Spain on Sunday.
But as per reports from Argentina, it was a fan who brought the incendiary article into Atlanta Stadium after smuggling in a bedsheet emblazoned with the slogan.
According to Clarin, it was former Tottenham star Giovani Lo Celso who first spied the fan’s banner in the stands, leaping over the advertising hoardings as his team-mates are thought to have been celebrating with an anti-English chant that involved ‘a minute’s silence for the England – who are dead’.
Lo Celso is then thought to have conspired with Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez to display the flag on the pitch as the chants continued with ‘everyone who doesn’t jump is an Englishman’.
FIFA has a strict ban on political messaging inside their stadiums for both players and fans, but the flag was quickly taken up by another Premier League star – Cristian Romero – as team-mates surrounded it and continued their celebrations.
New details have come to light about the provenance of Argentina’s Falklands banner
Giovani Lo Celso is believed to have fetched the banner from the stands to present to his team-mates on the pitch
The flag is since reported to have returned with the players to their camp ahead of their meeting with Spain.
The Argentine outlet also reported that the players had sent a signed jersey to veterans of the Falklands War who staff their country’s museum on the conflict in Tierra del Fuego.
The fan who brought the flag into the stadium is believed to have been identified by a user on X called @Milo20154, who wrote: ‘My brother-in-law’s cousin painted it; it’s a piece of a hotel bedsheet’.
The flag-painter continues to remain anonymous amid the possibility of punishments from the tournament organiser.
A member of the staff within the Argentina set-up shared a picture of the flag in their hotel on Thursday evening, with the message: ‘To whom it may concern… It is in good hands’.
UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Peter Kyle, said on Thursday it was ‘entirely inappropriate’ to wave the banner, praising England for acting with dignity in ‘real contrast with what we saw with the Argentina team’.
Tory shadow minister Andrew Griffith said: ‘Labour’s Chagos surrender has made us look weak, and British territory up for grabs. The Falklands are British. Whoever won the football. This idiotic display from the Argies was clearly against FIFA rules. They should be punished.’
FIFA has yet to comment, but the governing body is under huge pressure to punish Argentina for flouting its rules with an incendiary banner backing the country’s claim to the Falkland Islands. Manchester United and Spurs are being urged to punish Romero and Martinez.
Twelve years ago, the team carried the same banner at an international friendly and was fined just £20,000.
The banner was allegedly fashioned out of a hotel sheet and brought into the stadium
It was last sighted at Argentina’s base camp ahead of their World Cup final meeting with Spain
Argentina fans held the banner with the words ‘The Malvinas are Argentinian’ in the stands
The banner and a slew of anti-English chants became central to their celebrations after beating England 2-1
But there are growing calls for the players who carried the banner at a match of such magnitude – watched by an estimated 950 million people worldwide – to face tougher sanctions.
There is recent precedent too: UEFA handed a one-match ban to Spain players Rodri and Alvaro Morata who celebrated their European Championship win in 2024 against England by chanting ‘Gibraltar is Spanish’.
A total of 255 British servicemen were among the 907 people who died in the 1982 Falklands War, which saw UK armed forces retake the islands after an Argentine invasion.
Britain first landed on the uninhabited islands in 1690 and claimed them for the Crown in 1765. It has maintained a permanent presence there since 1833 – 47 years before Argentina became a fully unified state following its declaration of independence from Spain in 1816.
Tensions over the ownership of the Falklands, which are located 300 miles off the coast of Argentina but owned by Britain, had been a major talking point in the build-up to England’s semi-final.
Argentina’s players were captured singing a chant in which they claimed the Falkland Islands were theirs in the aftermath of their last-16 victory over Egypt.
The country’s Foreign Minister, Pablo Quirno, also claimed the people living on the islands had been ‘artificially implanted’ – and that a referendum on British sovereignty was illegitimate.
And after Argentina’s victory, vice-president Victoria Villarruel posted on X that ‘it wasn’t just another match’ alongside a video of what appeared to be Argentine soldiers.
‘The Falklands are Argentine,’ she wrote. ‘They banned bringing them to the stadium and forgot that we carry them in our blood and our hearts.’
In the build-up to the game, Villarruel also branded England as ‘usurping pirates’.
She wrote: ‘Tomorrow we play against the usurping pirates. This isn’t just another match.
‘I’m not going to be politically correct or cold-hearted; against the English, it’s always something more.’
Falklanders were asked in a 2013 ballot whether they wanted the islands to remain under British rule, with 99.8 per cent voting yes.
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