A resolution of the Foreign Ministry sent to its consulates in Rio de Janeiro and El Salvador, Brazil, demanded that the organizers of an international Badminton tournament do not allow a team bearing the name “Falkland Islands Badminton” to participate. Or, on the contrary, it was requested that they can only participate with the team name “Las Malvinas”, as they are known in Argentina and among those who recognize the sovereignty of this country over them. Falkland Islands is the name used to refer to the archipelago by the British, members of the Commonwealth and islanders.
At the same time, from the Islands there were only complaints stating that the Argentines “threatened” the self-baptized “Falkland Islands Badminton team”, who seeks to participate in the Pan Am Cup competition It starts this Thursday in El Salvador, Bahia and will last until Sunday 16. It was organized by the Brazilian Badminton Confederation and grants places for the final of the Thomas and Uber Cup, which will be held in Denmark.
Foreign Ministry sources told this newspaper that on the website of the Brazilian Confederation “the Falkland Islands are listed as a separate entity from the Argentine Republic and they are identified with the illegitimate flag.” They pointed out that both the regulations of the Pan American Confederation, as well as that of the World Badminton Federation, allow the participation of clubs or organizations from territories that are not yet recognized by the international community: “Said norms do not empower either of the two entities to grant the recognition of an alleged status of country or national association to an entity that is subject to a sovereignty dispute, such is the case of the Falkland Islands “.
And they added: “The intention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not that the ‘Stanley Badminton Club’ modify its name or prevent its participation as a ‘sports club’, it is simply the intention of the Argentine Government to reaffirm that the Falkland Islands are part of the Argentine national territory“.
Curiously, Argentine athletes are not participating of this competition, female and male. According to the official version, it is pure coincidence, but it is clear that, as in other similar incidents, the Government of Alberto Fernández seeks to prevent the participation of a Malvinas team with that name from generating a precedent where the islands are recognized as a country in itself himself, with self-determination, which Argentina rejects. The striking thing is that it has been allowed in Brazil who is on the Argentine side in this claim
The President of the National Badminton Federation, Hector Maleh, he agreed with the decision. “We must act accordingly with what is established in the international relations of our country. We are aware that the Falklands are Argentine.”
“An Argentine referee informed us of this situation. Our athletes decided not to go, but we did not know that a Malvinas team was participating,” he added.
Badminton is an Indian-born sport that the British exported to their country. It is played in divided court like volleyball or tennis, with rackets and a shuttlecock that acts as a “ball”, but is made of cork with a goose feather or nylon crown.
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