Old wounds, new stage: The history behind England and Argentina's world Cup rivalry

History does not forgive easily. Forged by a sending off, scarred by war, and immortalized by one man's genius and deceit, this fiercely political match returns to the World Cup stage on Wednesday (15 July).

"It was some sort of symbolic revenge against the English."

Diego Maradona spoke those words in 1986, moments after scoring the most controversial goal in World Cup history.

Four decades on, as England and Argentina prepare to meet once again, his words remain the clearest explanation for why this fixture is never just about football.

The sending off that started it all

The rivalry traces back to 23 July 1966 and a World Cup quarterfinal at Wembley.

Argentina, unbeaten going into the match, were captained by a combative midfielder named Antonio Rattin. In the 36th minute, West German referee Rudolf Kreitlein sent Rattin off for dissent.

Rattin refused to accept the decision and would not leave the pitch.

The match stopped for nearly eight minutes while Fifa officials, including the Englishman Ken Aston, then head of Fifa's referees committee, tried to persuade him to walk.

When Rattin finally went, he tore at a corner flag bearing the England crest and sat briefly on a red carpet laid out for Queen Elizabeth II before disappearing down the tunnel.

England won 1-0 through a Geoff Hurst header before going on to beat West Germany in the final and lift the World Cup.

The result mattered less than the aftermath.

England manager Alf Ramsey stopped his players from swapping shirts with their opponents, a courtesy usually observed after matches, and told reporters that England would not show their best form until they met opponents who came to play football rather than act like "animals." The word stuck.

In Argentina, where the match is still called El Robo del Siglo, the Robbery of the Century, Ramsey's comment was received as a national insult rather than criticism of a single game.

The confusion around Rattin's dismissal also exposed a real flaw in the sport, since referees had no way to signal a caution or a dismissal that players from every country could understand.

Fifa acted on the lesson, and yellow and red cards were introduced at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, a system still used in every match played today.

A war fought eight thousand miles from any pitch

Sixteen years after Wembley, the rivalry was overtaken by a real war.

Argentina and Britain had disputed sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, called Las Malvinas in Argentina, for more than a century.

On 2 April 1982, Argentina's military government, led by General Leopoldo Galtieri, invaded the islands, hoping a wave of patriotism would distract from a collapsing economy and years of human rights abuses at home.

Britain, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, sent a naval task force nearly eight thousand miles to retake them.

The war lasted 74 days and ended with Argentina's surrender on 14 June 1982. It killed 649 Argentine service members, 255 British service members, and three Falkland Islanders.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were not restored until 1990.

For Argentina, the defeat compounded a humiliation many already felt after 1966, proof, to many, that England had beaten them again.

For England, the war hardened public feeling toward a country still associated with military dictatorship.

Neither side needed reminding of any of this four years later, when the World Cup draw paired them together once more.

1986: "The Hand of God" and "The Goal of the Century"

The World Cup moved to Mexico in 1986, and the draw sent England and Argentina into the same quarterfinal, their first meeting since the war had ended four years earlier.

On 22 June 1986, the sides met at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, the weight of the previous four years hanging over the entire occasion.

The first half finished goalless.

Six minutes into the second half, Argentina's captain, Diego Maradona, chased a stray clearance from England's Steve Hodge into the penalty area and rose to meet it alongside goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who had roughly eight inches of height on him.

Maradona punched the ball past him with his left fist.

Neither Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser nor his linesman spotted the handball, and the goal stood. Asked about it afterward, Maradona joked that credit for the goal belonged partly to his own head and partly to a higher power he called the hand of God. The nickname attached itself to the goal permanently.

Four minutes later, he settled any argument about his talent.

Collecting the ball just inside his own half, Maradona ran more than half the length of the pitch, weaving past six England defenders and around Shilton before rolling the ball into an empty net.

Fifa later crowned it the Goal of the Century in a public vote. Gary Lineker pulled one back, but Argentina held on to win 2-1 and went on to lift the trophy, beating West Germany in the final.

Maradona never apologized for the handball.

In later interviews, he dropped the joke about a higher power altogether and said plainly that beating England had meant more to his team than the tournament itself, framing it as revenge for young Argentine soldiers killed in the Falklands less than four years earlier.

Former Argentina international Roberto Perfumo put it more bluntly still, saying beating England was the team's real aim and winning the World Cup was secondary.

In England, the goal remains a byword for injustice.

In Argentina, it is celebrated without apology, replayed on state television and woven into the country's footballing identity.

The rivalry lived on through Diego Simeone's role in David Beckham's sending off in 1998 and Beckham's redemption penalty against Argentina four years after that, but nothing has matched the intensity of what happened between 1966 and 1986.

The teams next World Cup meetings kept the rivalry burning without quite the same political charge.

At France 1998, a thrilling second round tie finished 2-2 after extra time, remembered for Michael Owen's wonder goal and for David Beckham's red card after he flicked a leg at Diego Simeone, leaving England to lose on penalties.

Four years later in Japan and South Korea, Beckham answered that moment with the only goal of a tense group game, a penalty that beat Argentina 1-0.

The two sides would not meet again at a World Cup for almost a quarter of a century, since neither the draw nor the bracket brought them together again until now.

The referee controversy

No referee from England or Argentina takes charge of a match involving the other, and that is by design.

Fifa's general rule bars any official from a match involving their own football association, a standard safeguard against conflicts of interest used across the sport.

For England and Argentina, the rule goes further.

Since the Falklands War, English referees have not been appointed to any Argentina fixture, and Argentine referees have not been appointed to any England fixture, whether or not the other nation is even playing in that particular game.

The restriction still holds at this World Cup.

England's Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor, two of the tournament's busiest officials, have taken charge of multiple matches across the United States, Mexico and Canada this summer, but neither has gone near an Argentina fixture, and neither can take charge of the 19 July final now that both England and Argentina have reached the semifinals.

The same situation cost Taylor a chance at the final four years earlier, when Argentina advanced to face France at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Wednesday's semifinal in Atlanta will instead be overseen by officials from neither nation, continuing a policy that has held firm since 1986.

Old wounds, new stakes

"Football has memory."- Jorge Valdano

Wednesday marks the sixth World Cup meeting between England and Argentina and the first knockout stage clash between them in 28 years.

Kick-off at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is set for 1am BST (Bangladesh standard time) 16 July.

The winner advances to the World Cup final on 19 July at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, against the winner of France and Spain.

For Lionel Messi, it will be his first competitive match against England at any level and, by his own account, his final World Cup appearance, closing out a tournament career that had somehow never before crossed paths with the country he now faces on the biggest stage of all.

The match arrives under a shadow neither side asked for.

Rattin, the man whose sending off began this rivalry sixty years ago, died only hours before both nations booked their places in this semifinal.

Football's oldest and most political rivalry writes its next chapter without one of the men who started it, in a stadium thousands of miles from Wembley or the Falklands, still carrying the weight of both.