Argentina repudiates CONMEBOL for banning Malvinas flag in Libertadores match

Argentina’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday repudiated a decision by the CONMEBOL South American football confederation banning River Plate fans from unfurling a flag showing the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands to be Argentine territory at last Tuesday’s Copa Libertadores quarter-final home match against Chile’s Colo-Colo.

"We’re surprised by the arbitrary decision to prohibit the entry of Argentine flags including the Malvinas Islands in its sporting events," said Foreign Minister Diana Mondino in her X account, asking "urgently for this situation to be overturned" and describing the decision as an attack on the freedom of expression.

Last Tuesday in the prelude to the home fixture, CONMEBOL informed River Plate that it could not unfurl a flag showing the image of the Malvinas between two captions reading: "Argentine territory" and "River does not forget," according to ESPN television news channel.

The Malvinas archipelago, 600 kilometres off the Patagonian coast, was the scene of a 74-day war in 1982 leaving 649 Argentines and 255 British dead. 

With the exception of that war, Argentina has been claiming sovereignty over the islands by diplomatic means for almost 200 years.

CONMEBOL’s justification was that the standard symbolised "political violence," pointed out ESPN.

Mondino "especially" aimed her fire at the President of Argentine Football Association (AFA), Claudio Tapia, who as second vice-president of CONMEBOL must have backed this decision, the minister alleged.

The controversy within the framework of the match in which River beat Colo Colo 1-0 to reach the Libertadores semi-finals, is not the first to combine South American football with the Malvinas.

In May, 2023, the Malvinas insignia appeared under wraps at the Malvinas Argentinas stadium in the western city of Mendoza, one of the venues of the Under-20 Football World Cup that year. 

After the wave of reactions, the Mendoza provincial government ordered the uncovering of the Malvinas map and the light-blue-and-white flag on the stadium’s electronic scoreboard and mega-screen, which had been covered by an "involuntary error of FIFA," Rodolfo Suárez, the then-governor of the province, wrote on his X account.

– TIMES/AFP