We shouldn’t confuse politics and football – ScaloniImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Lionel Scaloni led Argentina to their third World Cup triumph in 2022ByPaul BattisonBBC Sport JournalistPublished54 minutes agoArgentina manager Lionel Scaloni reported he was “not going to mix” football and politics as he looked ahead to his side’s World Cup semi-final against England in Atlanta on Wednesday.The two nations will resume one of international football’s most storied rivalries at the Atlanta Stadium, as England bid to defeat the defending champions and reach their first World Cup final since 1966.Their rivalry on the pitch has been intensified by political disputes off it, with Britain and Argentina fighting the Falklands War in 1982 – a 74-day conflict that resulted in the deaths of 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British combatants and three civilians.The British overseas territory, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas, remains the subject of a sovereignty dispute between the two countries.
“The reality is that this is a football match. I can’t mix things up, especially out of respect for what happened so many years ago,” reported Scaloni.
“It was a very sad period in our history, and there isn’t much we can do about it, that’s the reality.
“Things are happening elsewhere in the world, and we criticise the existence of war. We certainly remember those people, of course. But it is a football match; we shouldn’t confuse the two.”
