With Wednesday's World Cup showdown in Atlanta looming – and carrying baggage that goes well beyond the pitch – the British Embassy in Argentina decided on Tuesday to take some of the heat out of the occasion with a joke.
In an Instagram post, the Embassy shared a mock "internal memo" supposedly sent to its own “CN” or community manager, laying out the ground rules for handling the social media feeds in the fall-out of Wednesday's semi-final.
Should England win, the memo instructs, the response is simple: "Celebrate elegantly, full stop." Should Argentina win, the community manager is told to "congratulate the winner, wish them the best of luck in the final and not go around denouncing non-existent conspiracies." Memes, the document notes, are permitted – "but with tact."
The memo is signed off by a fictitious body, "His Majesty's Office for the Contingency of an England-Argentina World Cup Fixture."
The Instagram post reads, in full:
"Dear British Embassy's Community Manager,
Ahead of tomorrow's World Cup semi-final, we remind you of the following instructions to be observed when addressing this matter on the Embassy's social media: Should England win, celebrate elegantly, full stop. Should Argentina win, congratulate the winner, wish them the best of luck in the final and do not go around denouncing non-existent conspiracies. The use of memes is permitted, but with tact. As they say in the halls of Oxford, 'the oven is not ready for buns.' Yours sincerely, His Majesty's Office for the Contingency of an England-Argentina World Cup Fixture."
Introducing the memo, the embassy's community manager – working under Ambassador David Cairns – added a message of their own: "Hi. I'm the Embassy's CM. I know you're all expecting us to post something about what everyone's thinking, but they haven't made it easy for me. Here's the memo I got – you sort it out."
The lighthearted post is an attempt to acknowledge and defuse some of the tensions surrounding Wednesday's match, which for many Argentines carries weight far beyond football, entangled as it is with the long-standing claim to sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands (known in the UK as the Falkland Islands) and a fierce sporting rivalry dating back decades.
The Embassy's post follows a statement from Argentina’s "2 de Abril" War Veterans Federation, which this week urged the public to keep football and the sovereignty claim separate.
Under the headline "Malvinas sentiment is non-negotiable: memory is defended on every pitch," the federation issued a statement addressed to "public opinion, the media and the Argentine people." Its central message was blunt: "Sport is not a war, it is not payback – it is just a game."
Speaking on Tuesday at a pre-game press conference, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni offered a similar message.
“It’s a football match and I can’t mix things up – especially out of respect for what happened many years ago. It’s a football match.
“Mixing the two would be madness, because there are things happening in other parts of the world and, with wars going on, it would be madness. We mustn’t get confused.
“Now, as Argentines, we have to remember the people who went there and their families. But what fault do today’s players and people have? We’d be wrong to mix things up.”
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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