The banners displayed by Lisandro Martínez and Giovani Lo Celso are against FIFA’s Stadium Code of Conduct.
Published July 15, 2026
After Argentina’s 2-1 victory over England in the World Cup semi-finals, Argentine players held up a political banner proclaiming “Las Malvinas Son Argentina” (“Falkland Islanders are Argentines”), a clear violation of FIFA rules.
FIFA’s Stadium Code of Conduct prohibits “banners, flags, leaflets, clothing or other paraphernalia of a political, offensive or discriminatory nature” inside stadiums.
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The international soccer federation did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Wednesday.
The question of sovereignty over the South Atlantic islands (known to the British as the Falklands and to the Argentines as the Malvinas) has long soured relations between the two countries.
A brief conflict over the islands occurred in 1982, resulting in the deaths of 649 Argentine soldiers and 255 British soldiers. Although Britain ultimately won, the majority of islanders say they want to remain part of Britain.
But Argentina has long maintained that it inherited the islands from Spain after independence in 1816 and that Britain ruled them under an illegal colonial law in 1833.
Lisandro Martinez and Giovani Lo Celso held up banners and grinned as they waved to the fans in the stands. It was unclear where the banner came from.
This is not the first time the issue of political banners has come up during the World Cup. Last month in Los Angeles, Iranian-Americans waved pre-revolutionary flags, a symbol of protest against the Tehran government, during an Iran game. These matches proceeded without incident.
