Argentina should get over it: the Falklands are ours, writes James Hanson

The World Cup semi-final will reignite a decades-long rivalry both on and off the pitch. From Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal in 1986, via David Beckham’s red card for a petulant kick at Diego Simeone in 1998, to Goldenballs’ redemption four years later when he scored the winning penalty in a group stage clash, games between the two countries have always delivered high drama.

But what adds an extra layer of animosity is the inescapable shadow of the Falklands War. Maradona famously claimed the ‘Hand of God’ was ‘symbolic revenge’ for Argentina’s defeat in the conflict four years earlier. Even today, Argentina fans still regularly chant ‘anyone who doesn’t jump is an Englishman’, and following the side’s Round of 16 victory over Egypt, Argentina players were filmed signing a chant in which they claim the Falkland Islands - or ‘Las Malvinas’ as they call them - as their own.

Unsurprisingly, the UK government has waded in. Speaking to LBC, the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, stressed that sovereignty over the Falklands is ‘not going to change’ and that fans should ‘focus on the football’. Meanwhile, Downing Street has issued a statement saying: ‘The UK’s position is clear. The islanders have repeatedly expressed their wish to remain a British overseas territory, and their right to self-determination is paramount.’ Quite right, too.

At first glance, it may seem curious how a small group of islands in the South Atlantic, over 8,000 miles from the UK, are British. But while the Falklands are only 300 miles off the east coast of Patagonia, the Argentine claim to sovereignty appears to revolve primarily around a nationalistic notion that geographical proximity should dictate allegiance. Never mind, it seems, that Britain has enjoyed undisputed sovereignty since 1833, or that 99.8% of islanders voted to remain a British Overseas Territory in a 2013 referendum.

The wishes of the islanders themselves are inescapable. It is a fundamental principle of international law that a people have the right to determine their sovereign status. And the Falklanders could not have been clearer. In 2013, just three people voted to disassociate from Britain. By contrast, over 1,500 chose to remain aligned. Among some on the left, it is fashionable to pretend the islands are little more than an imperial hangover. But the only country that has acted like a coloniser has been Argentina, when its military junta launched an invasion in 1982.

In total, 649 Argentine and 255 British military personnel were killed in the war, along with three islanders. For the UK government to ever cede sovereignty to the aggressor would be a betrayal of those who fought and died to protect both the Falklanders’ freedom and their right to self-determination.

In the years since the conflict, politicians in Buenos Aires have routinely used the islands as a nationalist rallying cry to distract from domestic troubles. But despite the inevitable chants about ‘Las Malvinas’ that will echo from the stands in Atlanta, the time has come for Argentina to get over it: the Falklands are ours, and rightly so.

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Listen to James Hanson on LBC on weekends between 4 and 7am.

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