When Argentina’s players unfurled a banner proclaiming their ownership of the Falkland Islands after beating England in the FIFA World Cup semi-final it raised plenty of laughs… but also rekindled memories of what really happened back in 1982. 

Football is known as the Beautiful Game because, when played well, it is truly poetic. But there’s another reason it has earned the title the Beautiful Game and that is the fan culture and humour which transforms an incredible sport into a cultural sensation. 

Sometimes the humour crosses the line, such as on Wednesday when defending World Cup champions Argentina came from 1-0 down against England in the semi-final of the 2026 football World Cup to win 2-1 in spectacular fashion in the dying moments of the game. Their jubilant players opened up a banner marked with the words “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” – “The Falklands are Argentine”.

It’s a sensitive issue between the two nations and, to be fair to Argentina, the English fans had been singing a similar tune ahead of the match (with social media all a-flutter with Falklands memes)… so to the victors quite rightly the spoils of good-natured humour. But losers generally fail to see the “haha” in good-natured humour, and as the mini-storm has erupted it seems that FIFA might be forced to take disciplinary action against Messi’s South American magicians.

A statement from Downing Street trumpeted calls for FIFA to investigate the Argentine players’ actions, with the official spokesperson of the UK Prime Minister declaring that “the World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are. Our commitment to the Falklands will never waver.”

It’s not the first time that Argentina’s players have waved that statement in front of the world’s photographers. Before they took on Slovenia in a friendly match in 2014 their players held up a banner with the same message – “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”. That action saw the Argentine Football Association fined £20,000. They could be in for a far bigger ticket this year considering the high profile of a World Cup semi-final.

All jokes aside, what is the whole Falklands thing really about and who is the rightful owner of that small and isolated islands that sits roughly 480 km wide of Argentina’s Patagonian coast in the South Atlantic Ocean?

The tale of the Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are a group of islands off the coast of South America and is officially a British territory controlled by the United Kingdom. At last count a total of 3,662 people live on the Falkland Islands. Known as Falkland Islanders, they are all British citizens who speak English as their native language.

The reality is that the Falkland Islands were never discovered or inhabited by Native Americans and there is no indigenous population of the Falklands. In fact, the Islands remained uninhabited until 1764 when the French established the first settlement, which they called Port Louis.

In 1767 France transferred Port Louis to Spain (who Argentina will face in Sunday’s World Cup final) who took control of the Islands. Argentina was established as a country in 1810, with its newborn name being the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata. Just 10 years later they took control of the Falkland Islands for 13 years, before the ever-expanding British empire decided it wanted that piece of the South Atlantic as well.

From 1833 to 1982 the Falkland Islands remained firmly under British control, until the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (by then renamed Argentina) decided to make a claim for the Falklands. The backstory to that claim was that in 1976 there was a military coup in Argentina, the result of which saw the country become a military dictatorship.

In April 1982 Argentina launched a war against the United Kingdom by first invading – and then successfully seizing control – of the Falkland Islands. It was a short-lived reign and by June 1982 the British military had retaken control of the Falklands after a two-and-a-half-month “Falkland War” that saw 255 British military personnel killed, along with 649 Argentine military personnel.

Since June 1982 peace has reigned in the Falklands as the United Kingdom has exercised its control of the islands, with Argentina’s dictatorship status ending meekly in 1983. Despite that switch to democracy, Argentina never gave up its claims to the islands and to this day (as can be seen by the banner waved by the Argentina players) the government of Argentina still firmly claims that the Falkland Islands belong to it.

With no native population and with no cultural heritage on the island – not to mention Argentina having only ruled the Islands for 13 of the 262 years since it was first settled by France (who lost to Spain in the other semi-final) – Argentina’s claims (while passionate) would seem not to pack much legal punch. A referendum held in the Falkland Islands in 2013 presented the Falkland Islanders with the question of whether or not they supported the continuation of British rule. A total of 1,513 Falkland Islanders voted in favour of continued British rule… while just three Falklanders voted against British rule.

Perhaps even Donald Trump would struggle to make a claim about vote-rigging after such a landslide result, and it’s hard to argue against the voice of the people of the Falklands… yet Argentina rejected the referendum result and continued claiming ownership of the islands. Mind you, Trump does enjoy a bromance with Argentine President Javier Milei, so perhaps Trump (who won the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World”) might put his weight behind FIFA forgiving the Argentina players for their bannermania.

While being one of the few places (for now) not on Trump’s land acquisition radar, the Islands are not without their economic value, claiming close to $400-million in annual exports, but one wonders if the success-starved English football fans were presented with a referendum about the Falkland Islands vs the World Cup which way might they swing? England have won the World Cup just once, back in the black-and-white days of 1966, while Argentina have won the World Cup three times since then, with their first win coming in 1976.

Keep the Falkland Islands or have a crack at a second World Cup? If that was the referendum placed before the Poms my guess is that the English fans’ passion for the Falkland Islands would prove to be not as resolute as that of the fabled British bulldog and then-Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher. Perhaps it’s just as well then that Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez scored two fabulous goals in the final 10 minutes of the semi-final to put the footballing matter beyond doubt, although the geopolitical battle is likely to rage on for generations to come.

Research: Ronan Lewis (Full Circle History)