Falklands War hero Simon Weston has said Argentina players “cheapened” their World Cup victory over England when they waved a banner in support of their country’s claims to the islands after full-time.
Two late goals saw Lionel Messi’s defending champions beat the Three Lions 2-1 in Wednesday’s semi-final in Atlanta.
The result led to raucous celebrations in the stands, with some near the pitch holding a banner which read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, which translates to “The Falkland Islands are Argentinian”.
The banner referring to the dispute over the British overseas territory then made its way to the players, who held it up as they revelled in their win.
Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and invaded them in 1982 before being defeated by Britain in a short but bloody war.
Mr Weston – who was injured serving in the conflict during the bombing of the RFA Sir Galahad – told The Independent that seeing the banner waved caused him “great sadness at the lack of professionalism, the lack of maturity of the Argentine players.”
“It also made me feel very sad for the Falkland Islanders, who have made it clear who they want to govern them,” he said.
“It’s not for others to tell people who they should align with. That’s called freedom; it’s called democracy.”
Buenos Aires has repeatedly claimed sovereignty over the islands, which are about 8,000 miles from Britain and 300 miles from mainland Argentina.
In 2013 islanders voted to remain a UK territory. However, before Wednesday’s match, Argentina’s foreign minister Pablo Quirno claimed they were an “artificially implanted” population and said the 2013 vote was effectively illegitimate.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had said he did not want the fixture to be framed by the conflict over the territory, but the country’s vice-president Victoria Villarruel tweeted a victory message saying “it wasn’t just another match” alongside a video of what appeared to be Argentinian soldiers.
In the build-up to the fixture, she had described England as “invaders” and “usurping pirates”.
Of the comments of the Argentine government and the actions of their players, Mr Weston said: “If you want to win people over, you’ve got to be more decent, sensible, and mature. At this moment in time, we’re seeing none of that.
“Even during a football match, which is supposedly peaceful entertainment, they brought politics in and dragged their victory into the gutter.”
Mr Weston called on governing body Fifa to act over the banner. Article 34.3 of the tournament’s rules prohibits the display of any political messages or slogans by players before, during or after a match.
“This was a homemade banner created by somebody in the crowd, taken by the players, and used,” he said.
“Have you ever seen a banner – especially a dirty old bed sheet that's been painted on – change the world?
“Change politics? Change anybody’s view on a situation? I have never seen a tatty old bed sheet achieve that. So why did they cheapen their own victory?
“Nothing has ever been changed by a banner, apart from causing offence and breaking the rules of the tournament organisers. But Fifa do have to act, and they have to act strongly now.”
Business secretary Peter Kyle said on Thursday that the behaviour of Argentina players was “entirely inappropriate”.
“Politics needs to be separate from football”, he told BBC Breakfast.
“In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football. That is now a matter for Fifa. I expect Fifa to do its investigation thoroughly.”
He continued: “We expect Fifa to undertake an investigation into this.
“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.”
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