Argentina’s foreign minister Pablo Quirno has added fuel to the arch World Cup rivalry between his nation and England ahead of their semi-final meeting with the timely publication of an essay reasserting the Argentine claim on the Falkland Islands.
The 1982 conflict in the South Atlantic proved a prickly backdrop of the Three Lions’ meeting with Argentina at the 1986 World Cup, with Diego Maradona describing his ‘Hand of God’ goal as ‘symbolic revenge’ for the defeat his country suffered during the 10-week war, which saw 649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers killed.
40 years later, and players celebrated their win over Switzerland to book their semi-final against Thomas Tuchel and Co with the chant: ‘For the Malvinas, For Diego, For Leo’s (Messi’s) last one’.
Quirno went one step further in an op-ed for La Nacion on Sunday, hitting out at the United Kingdom’s ‘illegitimate occupation’ of the Falklands just days before Wednesday’s match in Atlanta.
The minister in anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei’s cabinet also rubbished the islanders – of whom 99.8 per cent voted to remain British in a 2013 referendum – as ‘artificially implanted’.
A 2016 census reported that 43 per cent of the archipelago were born in the Falklands, with many descended from the Welsh and Scottish immigrants who moved to the territory shortly after British rule was asserted in 1833.
Argentina’s foreign minister Pablo Quirno has written a polemic on the Falklands days before England and his country meet
Stars from the national team sang anti-English songs as they celebrated beating Switzerland
Writing in his column in the newspaper, Quirno continued: ‘Time does not transform an illegitimate occupation into sovereignty. Nor will it divide the territorial unity of the Argentine Republic
‘Our claim will not be relinquished, resigned, or abandoned. The Falkland Islands are history, territory, sea, memory, and destiny. They are a promise between generations.
‘They are the voice of a nation that knows how to wait without giving up and knows how to demand without surrendering.’
Quirno went on to invalidate both the earlier referendum and future polls on the sovereignty of the islands by adding that no vote ‘organised unilaterally by the UK can have legal effect.
‘We must not fall into the referendum trap’.
Among those quick to respond to the statement was Shadow Foreign Minister Priti Patel, who referred to the Islanders, who were granted full British citizenship from 1983, as ‘proudly British’.
‘Argentina’s latest comments about the Falkland Islanders are as offensive as they are wrong,’ Patel shared in a statement on X. ‘The people of the Falkland Islands are proudly British, and their right to self-determination is absolute.
‘No amount of revisionist rhetoric from Buenos Aires will change that. Britain will always stand firmly with the Falkland Islanders.’
Quirno’s polemic is not the first instance of Argentina bringing their claim to the top of the news agenda this year, with President Milei stating that the Islands – known in Argentina as Las Malvinas – ‘were, are and will always be Argentine’.
A leaked Pentagon memo in April suggested that the United States might be prepared to rethink their position on supporting British sovereignty after the UK failed to back their president Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quick to downplay the memo in the immediate aftermath.
In 2013, Falkland Islanders voted overwhelmingly that they identified as British (Stanley, the capital, pictured)
Ahead of Wednesday’s game, Daily Mail Sport reported that police in Atlanta are gearing up for a complex operation amid a 50-50 split of emotionally charged fans of both teams.
Indeed, videos have already circulated online of minor disturbances between Argentina and England fans on Saturday. In one, a Three Lions supporter is seen in the stadium trading punches with three men in Argentina shirts, while another clip appeared to show a group of Argentina-shirted followers confronting England fans in a bar.
The full chant referenced by the players and their fans following victory over Switzerland is a reworked spin on Muchachos, Esta Noche Me Emborracho – Boys, Tonight I’ll Get Drunk – a 2003 hit by Argentine ska band La Mosca.
The song was previously a talisman throughout their run to claim the 2022 trophy.
‘I am a supporter of the national team, I cheer it on with all my heart,’ Argentina’s players chanted in Spanish. ‘We won the third title with Lionel, and we want to be champions once again.
‘And 32 years later, La Scaloneta will avenge the trophy that was taken from the No. 10, the one we were not allowed to lift.
‘I want to see the fourth star shining on the jersey. I am Argentine from cradle to grave, for the Malvinas, for Diego, for Leo’s final chapter.
‘Argentina, I want to see you become back-to-back champions.’
