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LONDON: The FBI has flagged England’s semi-final with Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday night as the highest-risk game because of the bitter and long-running rivalry between the two sides.Forty years ago, when Argentina beat England 2-1 in the quarter-finals of Mexico ’86 at the Azteca Stadium, the English were furious. “He cheated,” said England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. “He showed no remorse.”The first goal for Argentina was scored by Diego Maradona when he punched the ball past Shilton into the net. Despite England’s protests, the referee claimed he didn’t see it and allowed it. Minutes later, Maradona scored the greatest World Cup goal of all time. Argentina would later win the World Cup and Maradona would describe his first goal in England as “the hand of God”.Maradona later admitted in his autobiography that he had indeed used his hand and said it was “a kind of symbolic revenge against the English” for the 1982 Falklands War, which killed 649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers. Of the Argentines who died, 323 were on board the ARA Belgrano, an Argentine naval vessel, when then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher authorized its sinking.“All I wanted to do was honor the memory of the dead,” Maradona said. “Wipe England off the world map – off the world football map, that is.”On Wednesday, Maradona’s son, Diego Sinagara, urged fans to remember the dead, telling Spanish newspaper Marca: “For all Argentinians and Maradona fans, it will be a different kind of match, one that will remember everything about the Malvinas (Falklands War) and all our brothers who died there…”Last week, Argentina’s national soccer team released a video showing players celebrating in their dressing room to Argentina’s World Cup supporters’ anthem La Cuarta Estrella, which includes the lyrics: “I’m Argentine from cradle to grave, for the Malvinas, for Diego.”“Las Malvinas” is the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands. This week, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno called the Falkland Islanders an “artificially implanted” population in an essay in Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper, demanding Britain enter into negotiations to hand over the territory. He claimed that the 2013 referendum was illegitimate.The official spokesman of the British Prime Minister retorted: “The inhabitants of the Falkland Islands are British with the right to determine their own future. The UK’s position is clear. The islanders have repeatedly expressed their desire to remain a British overseas territory.”This bitter rivalry, however, stretches back even before the Falklands War. In 1966, when the two sides met in the quarter-finals of the World Cup at Wembley, Argentina’s players used violent attacks, spitting, hair-pulling and heavy-handed intimidation tactics. England coach Alf Ramsey famously called them “animals” and Argentina captain Antonio Rattin, who died at the weekend, was sent off for dissent after arguing with the referee. They had to call the police to remove him from the field.The two sides met in France ’98 when David Beckham received a red card for kicking Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone. Simeone later admitted that he did everything he could to provoke the English midfielder. England lost on penalties. “The English players are more naive. We are looking for ways to destroy him,” Roberto Perfumo, the former Argentina captain, told the Guardian in 2002.While Argentina’s football culture seems to be geared towards stoking anti-English sentiment, football was ironically introduced to Argentina in 1867 by the Hogg brothers, Englishmen from Skelton, Yorkshire.Pubs across Britain are decked out for the biggest night of the year with flags at the ready. English fans are convinced that England can win. They also see the match as revenge for Maradona’s ‘hand of God’.
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