An ephemeral – but serious – controversy arose in Argentina on the sidelines of the Under-20 Football World Cup, in an “Argentina Falklands Stadium” in Mendoza, where the effigy of the islands was covered by a panel of the organization.
The Argentine Chancellery was moved on Wednesday by two panels located on either side of the giant screen of the Mendoza stadium (representing the Argentine flag and the archipelago) which had been covered by FIFA panels with the logo of the Global.
“Not only did they mask our islands, but they also did it with the Argentine flag”, denounced the secretary of state for the Falklands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona, after a letter asking explanations to the government of the province of Mendoza, led by the right, opposition to the national government (center-left).
If it is an “approach assumed by the secretariat of Sports or another provincial body”, the chancellery expresses “its firmest rejection”, writes Mr. Carmona. Who recalls that it is in no way “a political expression which could be considered inappropriate” with regard to the apolitical standards of FIFA, since “the name Malouines Argentines refers to a part of the national territory”.
The Confederation of Veterans of the Falklands, in a letter addressed to the Argentine Federation, denounced “an act of treason and a lack of respect”.
Like many stadiums, streets, squares, even municipalities, which bear their name, the Falklands, at the heart of a conflict in 1982 with Great Britain, are omnipresent in the daily lives of Argentines. And the recovery of the said islands in the South Atlantic, which Argentina considers “lost” since English control in 1833, appears in the Constitution as a “permanent and inalienable objective”.
Another controversy had failed to arise before the World Under 20, after a rumor that FIFA had asked to change the name of the stadium “Malouines” for political reasons. The Argentine authorities had denied, specifying that in its official programs and its communication for the tournament, FIFA refers to each stadium by the name of the city: “stadium of San Juan”, “stadium of La Plata”, etc.
Regarding the Mendoza stadium, the governor of the province of the same name, Rodolfo Suarez, communicated on Wednesday, with supporting photos, “that the signs had been removed which mentioned the tournament and hid the map of the Falkland Islands” .
“FIFA’s inadvertent error has been corrected,” he tweeted.
The England U20 team, in group E, plays all its group matches in La Plata, and even in the event of qualification will never be forced to play in the Falklands Argentinian stadium in Mendoza.
