Why Argentina wore black armbands in World Cup clash

Argentina wore black armbands to honour a player who was involved in an infamous incident in a game against England.

The two nations will renew one of the most bitter rivalries in international football on Wednesday when they do battle at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

It will be the first meeting between the two sides since a spicy 2005 friendly and the sixth overall in the World Cup.

The most famous clash is of course the 1986 quarter-final with Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God', while another game to forget for England was the round of 16 penalty shoot-out loss after David Beckham was sent of in 1998.

Beckham achieved redemption four years on in 2002 by scoring a penalty in a 1-0 group stage win, giving England a third World Cup triumph over La Albiceleste.

They defeated Argentina in the quarter-final in 1966 on the way to winning the World Cup and there was a highly controversial red card for the South American side.

Captain Antonio Rattin was sent off for getting into it with German referee Rudolf Kreitlein after he gave England a penalty 35 minutes in.

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Rattin didn't speak German and the referee couldn't understand Spanish but the official said he was given his marching orders for “violence of the tongue" and that he "believed seeing in his face” that the Boca Juniors con was “insulting me".

Argentina legend's antics vs England forced major change in football

A stubborn Rattin refused to leave for nearly 10 minutes, walking to the sideline and sitting on a red carpet that was provided for Queen Elizabeth II to watch the game.

As recalled by The New York Times, sat in the closed off area for a few minutes and was then escorted away by two policemen.

Aero chocolate bars were launched at him and Rattin proceeded to eat one. He further riled up the home fans by crumpling a corner pennant with the Union Jack flag, with beer cans thrown in his direction.

In a final bizarre element to the story, Rattin's path to the tunnel and back to the dressing room was blocked by a Shetland pony which was essentially acting as a team mascot.

"When I got to the corner, I twisted the English flag and insulted them," Rattin reflected to the BBC years later.

"Then I went over to the carpet the Queen used to enter the stadium and sat there for about five minutes. It was a very nice red carpet."

Rattin, who went sight-seeing in London after the loss, was given a four-game suspension. And his dismissal is a particularly important one as it led to the introduction of yellow and red cards, the decision coming from Ken Aston as he pushed for a traffic light system.

He played 34 times for the Argentina national team and played 382 games for Boca, where he spent his entire club career and won five league titles.

Rattin retired in 1970 and after a short stint as manager, worked in insurance before before a four-year run as an MP for the right-wing Federalist Unity party.

He died aged 89 on 11 July and Argentina were granted permission to wear the black armbands in the 3-1 quarter-final win over Switzerland.

In a message where they announced his passing, Boca called him "an idol and symbol of our institution".