England referee Anthony Taylor banned from officiating in FIFA World Cup final due to fears of bias around Falkland Islands

The Times reports that English referees have been barred from taking charge of matches featuring Argentina due to fears of bias around the Falkland Islands.

Taylor was kept on in Qatar when other English referees were sent home, including Michael Oliver.

Poland’s Szymon Marciniak will oversee Sunday’s showpiece event between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium.

Taylor took charge of Belgium’s goalless draw with Croatia and Ghana’s 3-2 win over South Korea in the group stage round.

Had Taylor landed the World Cup final, he would have been the first English referee to do so since 2010, when Howard Webb officiated Spain vs. Netherlands.

But he’s lost out to Marciniak who will be joined by fellow Polish officials Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz as assistant referees.

A bit about the Falklands war

Argentina has maintained that the Falklands were illegally taken from it in 1833 and invaded the British colony in 1982. That incident resulted in what later came to be known as the Falklands War that lasted a little over three months, ending in victory for the United Kingdom.

Argentina under General Galtieri seized power in Buenos Aires and had other ideas. In April 1982, the regime took the islands by force, only to be driven from them by a British taskforce two months later. No peace deal was reached and the Falklands became an embattled fortress in the South Atlantic, with troops, jets and warships on the permanent station.

How much it has cost the UK?

As per the report published in The Guardian, the war cost Britain about £2.8bn (£9.5bn in present value) and the islands’ defence costs upwards of £60m annually. In 2012 it was estimated that British taxpayers paid more than £20,000 per islander for defence alone, and approximately one-third of the population worked for the government.