ATLANTA — Somewhere in the next life Antonio Ubaldo Rattin is throwing heavenly darts at England squad photos and tearing up pictures of the Union Jack.
The former Boca Juniors and national team captain, who died earlier this month aged 89, had come to symbolise in more innocent times the anti-English sentiment in Argentina.
The animus he felt was entirely football-related and rooted in the perceived bias against Argentina at the 1966 World Cup held in England. Sixty years on, his actions appear no less petulant than they did when he stubbornly refused to accept his sending off for dissent, initially declining to leave the pitch and then plonking himself on the red carpet in front of the Royal Box.
That moment defined his life, Rattin returning to it whenever the opportunity arose in interviews with English journalists. He had already been booked before ploughing into the back of Geoff Hurst.
Though this did not trigger his immediate exit, German referee Rudy Kreitlein acted following the resultant free-kick, offended by what he later described as Rattin’s repeated outbursts, which he interpreted as dissent despite having no Spanish. England won 1-0 en route to their only World Cup success.
Argentina were not alone in their negative interpretation of the officiating and overall running of the competition, seeing anti-Latin feeling on the pitch and under hotel beds.
This attitude would later acquire the political dimension that persists today when the leader of Argentina’s military government, General Leopoldo Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, a desperate punt to legitimise his deeply unpopular regime via a unifying policy.
The junta came to power 10 years after Rattin’s storied World Cup quarter-final meltdown against England and was gone a year after the failed invasion. Rattin would later enter politics himself spending four years in government as a member of the Federalist Unity Party.
As Chairman of the Sports Committee his focus was elsewhere but by then the Falklands, or Las Malvinas, were established as a sacred political cause in Argentina, not that he needed any convincing of English hauteur.
Later, Argentina would gain their sporting revenge on Rattin’s behalf in 1986 via Diego Maradona’s notorious “Hand of God”.
In material terms Maradona cheated Argentina into a lead they never looked like surrendering. His quasi-religious framing trumped all controversy, and was received by the Argentinian people as an inalienable truth and justification for historic wrongs on the pitch and in the political arena.
Argentina’s anti-English position can thus be seen as a cultural staple built on the Rattin, Falklands and Maradona episodes, foundational pillars that are unlikely to shift whilst an archipelago 300 miles off the coast of Argentina remains under British sovereignty.
We can argue the toss about the validity of sovereign rule more than three centuries after a British sea captain first set foot on an uninhabited rock in the South Atlantic. Argentina claim they inherited the islands from colonialist power Spain after independence in 1818. Default ownership resulting from a prior colonial land grab hardly lands with moral force. But hey, that does not alter the way Argentina view the English, which manifests itself most readily when the countries meet on the sporting field.
David Beckham was a victim of the Argentinian dark arts when sent off for a theatrical flick of his heal whilst prone on the floor following yet another cynical challenge by Diego Simeone at the 1998 World Cup. England would lose on penalties and Beckham, the English totem of the day, would return home to effigies hanging from lamposts, an added bonus for the delectation of Argentina.
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Beckham would gain revenge of sorts, slotting the penalty in a 1-0 victory four years later that saw England progress to the knockout stages before falling to Brazil in the quarters.
The teams have not met since. Lionel Messi has never played a fixture against England. The semi-final here in Atlanta hardly needs extra sauce yet the Messi detail brings it, adding to the narrative power of an already seismic duel.
England touch down on Tuesday following a final morning training session at their Kansas base. By then downtown Atlanta will be flooded by supporters of both teams, some of whom will be seated side by side in the stands. Let us hope calm heads prevail, despite the celestial stirrings of a late departed hero.
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