“The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” was Downing Street’s response after Argentina’s football team unfurled a banner proclaiming “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” upon eliminating England to reach the final.

That the outgoing Keir Starmer government felt compelled to reaffirm British sovereignty over the archipelago off the coast of Argentina in the South Atlantic, and that the prime minister himself has urged FIFA to investigate the players who displayed the banner, is enough to illustrate how England versus Argentina has long been a proxy for unresolved questions of territory, nationalism, and historical memory.

It wasn’t always like this. Football arrived in Argentina in the 19th century with British immigrants, and the Scottish schoolmaster Alexander Watson Hutton is widely regarded as the “Father of Argentine football”.

Even when the two sides met in their notoriously rough 1966 World Cup quarter-final — where Argentina captain Antonio Rattín refused to leave the pitch for six minutes after being sent off, sitting in protest on a red carpet reserved for Queen Elizabeth II, before England manager Alf Ramsey branded the Argentine players “animals” — the rivalry remained a footballing one. That changed for good, 16 years later.

The Falkland Islands have been under continuous British administration since 1833, though the roots of the enmity stretch........

© Indian Express