Britain’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Peter Kyle, has called on world football governing body, FIFA, to investigate Argentina over the latter’s National Men’s Football Team’s political display in a football setting.
Kyle made the call in the wake of England’s 2-1 loss to Argentina in the semifinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. England plays France in the bronze medal game on Saturday, July 18.
After the fiercely contested game between the rival nations, Argentine players were spotted displaying a banner that had the inscription, “Las Malvinas Son Argentinas”- “The Falklands are Argentine” written on it.
The banner’s message stems from the two countries claim over the British occupied Falkland Islands that resulted in the 1982 Falklands War between the two countries.
Speaking to the BBC, Peter Kyle expressed his displeasure over Argentina’s action and called on FIFA to take action.
“My reaction is that it was entirely inappropriate. Politics needs to be separate from football. 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. 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” Kyle said.
