\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t World football organizing body FIFA announced on Wednesday that it\u2019ll be opening disciplinary proceedings against the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and a number of Albiceleste players following the display of a flag with the message \u201cLas Malvinas son argentinas\u201d (The Malvinas are Argentine) after their win vs England in the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
In the statement, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee noted Argentina is under investigation \u201cfor potential breaches\u201d of articles 13, 14, 15 and 17 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. Said articles legislate the use of sports \u201cfor demonstrations of a non-sporting nature,\u201d team misconduct, discrimination,racist abuse, order and security at matches.<\/p>\n
According the world football\u2019s governing body, it opens the investigation \u201cin light of discriminatory chants and gestures, late kick-offs, failure to comply with match and security protocols,\u201d as well as the \u201cdisplay of inappropriate messages by the team and spectators\u2019\u2019 and the \u201cthrowing of objects by spectators in relation to several matches of the representative team of Argentina at the FIFA World Cup 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the same communiqu\u00e9, FIFA announced individual investigations for breaking article 14 on grounds of assault and unsporting behavior on Albiceleste players Leandro Paredes, Nahuel Molina, Thiago Almada and coach Roberto Ayala, likely related to the incidents after Spain\u2019s win in the World Cup final. Spanish player Pablo Mart\u00edn P\u00e1ez Gavira, better known as Gavi, is also under investigation.<\/p>\n
FIFA said that all those involved have already been notified and will have the opportunity to present their defense before the Disciplinary Committee issues a final decision on each case.<\/p>\n
The AFA faces sanctions ranging from warnings and economic fines to the suspension of the national team and Argentine representatives in international competitions, while the players could be sanctioned with game bans, fines and even the possibility of extended period bans, although the last one is the least likely.<\/p>\n
What happened with the Malvinas flag at the 2026 World Cup? After coming back from 1-0 down in the semifinal matchup against England, Argentina players celebrated with a \u201cThe Malvinas are Argentine\u201d flag.<\/p>\n
The players later confirmed that they didn\u2019t produce the flag, but that someone in the stands threw it onto the pitch. Later, versions of the flag painted on a hotel sheet by a fan and smuggled onto the pitch went viral.<\/p>\n
Flags such as the one picked up by the players were confirmed as banned by Argentine Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva ahead of the game, as are all signs or flags with \u201cany kind of provocative message, whether political, racial, or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flag caused a big stir in the United Kingdom and worldwide, with the UK\u2019s Business Secretary Peter Kyle calling the display \u201can egregious violation of the rules of not having political activity as part of the football\u201d while talking to the BBC, adding that he expects \u201cFIFA to do its investigation thoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was backed by the UK\u2019s outgoing Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who told The Guardian that \u201cthe World Cup might not be [England\u2019s], but the Falkland Islands definitely are.\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":"
World football organizing body FIFA announced on Wednesday that it\u2019ll be opening disciplinary proceedings against the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and a number of Albiceleste players following the display of a flag with the message \u201cLas Malvinas son argentinas\u201d (The Malvinas are Argentine) after their win vs England in the 2026 World Cup. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":97775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,69,66,67,339],"tags":[5307,6040,1368,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-97774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-argentina-mens-national-football-team","category-football","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina-mens-national-football-team","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97774","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=97774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}