Will Argentina be punished for their Falklands stunt?
7/16/202633 min
The last minute defeat by Argentina was a hard cross to bear if you’re an England fan. But what happened afterwards propelled the game into a whole different sphere. Argentine players paraded a banner that fans threw onto the pitch calling for Las Malvinas to be returned to Argentina.
It is a highly political message. The kind FIFA is normally quick to ban. But at the time of writing FIFA has said nothing. Why? And what happens when politicians get in on the act too?
Later, Keir Starmer flies into Kyiv as protests break out on the streets of Ukraine. Zelenskyy has just fired a highly popular defence minister who’s credited with propelling Ukraine into 21st century drone technology. Why did he get the boot?
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First 90 secondsJon Sopel· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is a global production As the Argentinian players hold up a huge Malvinas banner on the pitch, we're just waiting [laughs] to see what FIFA actually does. That is just against the rules, and yet from FIFA, [crickets chirping] crickets.
Emily Maitlis· Host0:19
It's so public. It's not like, what, what decision was a ref making, or was there a sleight of hand, or was there somebody who'd been misfiled, or w- was a judgment sort of unclear? This has literally been broadcast around the world.
Jon Sopel· Host0:33
Look, who else was holding the banner last night? It's Lionel Messi. Is Gianni Infantino going to ban Lionel Messi from playing in the World Cup final on Sunday in New Jersey?
Emily Maitlis· Host0:46
[crowd cheering] Look, we know how many of you will be feeling. We know how many England fans will be feeling after the defeat of last night. You probably weren't looking at the screen, you probably weren't looking at the pitch at that moment. But if you were, you would've seen some fairly extraordinary scenes of a banner being unfurled and held up, held aloft by the Argentinian players, a banner that claims to want to retake Las Malvinas, the Falklands.
Jon Sopel· Host1:23
And that is in stark contravention of FIFA rules about political symbols being