\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t *Updated on July 14, 12 p.m.<\/p>\n
Several groups representing Malvinas War veterans have urged calm ahead of Argentina\u2019s World Cup semifinal against England on Wednesday, calling on fans to keep the focus on football.<\/p>\n
The Albiceleste will face Three Lions for a spot in the tournament final in a game charged with historical significance. The two have been bitter rivals since the Malvinas War, a 10-week conflict in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two sets of islands in the South Atlantic.<\/p>\n
\u201cSports are not war,\u201d said a statement by the 2 de Abril Malvinas Veterans Federation. \u201cThe semifinal match is a global sporting event, not an armed rematch or a form of historical retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the statement, they added that sovereignty should be defended \u201cin international forums through diplomacy.\u201d Argentina\u2019s \u201ctrue triumph,\u201d they said, lies \u201cin the cry of \u2018\u00a1Malvinas Argentinas!\u2019 that rings out proudly from every grandstand, without resorting to xenophobia or hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni had already toned down the tensions in his press conference after securing the semifinal spot last Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a football match; let\u2019s not make it something else,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing a great team, led by a great coach who I appreciate and admire a lot. It\u2019s just a football match, nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was later criticized for the comments by fans and press alike, although Malvinas War veterans\u2019 groups have come in support of his view.<\/p>\n
Veterans speak out The Centro de Ex Combatientes Islas Malvinas La Plata also released a statement, assuring the players that the matchup will be \u201cjust a football game, nothing more, nothing less.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also insisted that any sense of revenge against the English had already been addressed by Diego Maradona in the 1986 quarterfinal matchup.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiego has already avenged us. We have no more sporting scores to settle with them,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n
In turn, the Confederaci\u00f3n Nacional de Combatientes de Malvinas rejected the notion that honoring Malvinas War veterans or asserting national sovereignty during a sporting event \u201cis inappropriate or improper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNational identity is not put on hold for ninety minutes; it lives on in every symbol, every memory, and every legitimate expression of love for the homeland,\u201d their statement said.<\/p>\n
However, they called upon all Argentines to \u201ccheer on our team with pride, respect, and conviction,\u201d insisting that the outcome of the game \u201cwill be a mere statistic\u201d but \u201cloyalty to our country will go down in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editorial disclaimer: Although the UK refers to the territory as the \u201cFalkland Islands\u201d, Argentina strongly contests this name. The Buenos Aires Herald uses \u201cMalvinas\u201d to refer to the islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
*Updated on July 14, 12 p.m. Several groups representing Malvinas War veterans have urged calm ahead of Argentina\u2019s World Cup semifinal against England on Wednesday, calling on fans to keep the focus on football. The Albiceleste will face Three Lions for a spot in the tournament final in a game charged with historical significance. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":90227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5492,151,339],"tags":[5490,135,3576],"class_list":["post-90226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-malvinas-islands","category-society","category-world-cup-2026","tag-malvinas-islands","tag-society","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}