Malvinas: FIFA Bans Flags with Claim and Milei Maintains Low-Intensity Strategy

Football and geopolitics intersect once again. On the eve of the match between Argentina and England in the United States World Cup, FIFA demanded that the claim for the Malvinas Islands not appear on any flags carried by Argentine fans in the Atlanta stadium. Defense Minister Alejandra Monteoliva was tasked with communicating the news.

The world football governing body always tries to avoid such commitments to prevent differences between citizens of two countries from leading to problems. But the gesture is nonetheless a card of noble intentions. In this same World Cup, we saw how Donald Trump forced the suspension of American striker Folarin Balogun to be lifted so he could play against Belgium, a match that ended 1-4. Gianni Infantino granted the request. Also, the treatment of the Iranian national team showed that politics seeps into every fold.

The Malvinas issue is much more present among Argentines than among the English. It is a century-old dispossession, a claim that Argentina takes to all international organizations, and the deep pain for the dead of a war that the military dictatorship gifted to Margaret Thatcher. That happened in the epilogue of a bloody regime that was collapsing, but it had surprising popular support.

Javier Milei’s government has never been comfortable with the conflict. Internally, there are two currents: the President makes the sovereignty claim his strategic card, without fiery rhetoric; Vice President Victoria Villarruel has a more hardline stance, with the evocation of veterans at the forefront.

Milei’s discomfort stems from when he was a deputy and expressed admiration for Thatcher, responsible for the sinking of the cruiser General Belgrano. He is also reproached for his silence when David Cameron visited the Malvinas in February 2024. Additionally, he told British media that sovereignty is non-negotiable but should be negotiated considering the wishes of the inhabitants, the opposite of Argentina’s diplomatic tradition enshrined in the Constitution, which speaks of respecting interests, not wishes.

Milei anchored foreign relations in automatic alignment with the United States and Israel, which cooled ties with the region, the traditional support for the claim. Only now will he return to including the Southern Cone in his agenda: he will attend the inauguration of Keiko Fujimori in Peru, that of Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, and will stop in Brazil to greet Flavio Bolsonaro, son of Jair, who is serving a prison sentence.

Since coming to power, Milei has softened the strategy on the Malvinas: he asserts sovereignty but with low-intensity confrontation, seeking to resume bilateral dialogue for future economic agreements. The Casa Rosada hopes that alignment with Trump will serve as pressure against London. A Pentagon paper circulated conjecturing that the White House could diplomatically strike London by withdrawing support for its imperial possessions, but Marco Rubio dampened the enthusiasm.

That is why the government maintains moderation in the face of the national team’s rise in the World Cup. Tweets from Milei and Patricia Bullrich have been celebratory, but the clash with England would be another dimension. Only Buenos Aires deputy Nahuel Sotelo, who answers to Santiago Caputo, tweeted «against the usurpers» and said the match is the «most important since I’ve been alive,» above the final against France.

It is always a mistake to equate a sporting contest with a national cause anchored in international law. But football can overcome everything. It would also be reckless for a government to take shelter in a sporting triumph to exploit popular emotions, as Alberto and Cristina Fernández verified after the Qatar conquest.

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