U.S. tops Mexico after soccer match is ended early due to onslaught of homophobic chants

Mexico fans kept chanting anti-gay slurs at U.S. players, prompting officials to suspend the game.

Jun 17, 2023 - 20:00
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U.S. tops Mexico after soccer match is ended early due to onslaught of homophobic chants
U.S. and Mexico soccer players in a skirmish.
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The United States’ victory over Mexico Thursday in a highly anticipated soccer match turned ugly before the final whistle blew. Mexico fans kept chanting anti-gay slurs at U.S. players, prompting officials to suspend the contest.

This is a pattern for Mexico fans. No matter how many times they’re warned, they keep chanting homophobic slurs.

The U.S. crushed Mexico 3-0 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to advance to the CONCACAF Nations League final, but play was halted before the 90th minute due to homophobic chants. In addition, four players–two from the U.S. and two from Mexico–were ejected.

“In terms of the chant, I want to make it very clear first and foremost, for our beliefs and our culture, it has no place in the game,” U.S. interim coach B.J. Callaghan told reporters, via the Associated Press. “It has no place in our value system.”

CONCACAF–the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football–says several fans were ejected for engaging in “unacceptable behavior.”

For years, Mexico fans have chanted the word “puto“–a gay slur that’s banned by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body–during its team’s games. Just two months ago, fans shouted the slur at the U.S. Men’s National Team during a friendly in Arizona.

Last March, Mexico fans started chanting the word during the final minutes of a World Cup qualifier against the U.S. The match was held at Estadio Azteca in Mexico.

Prior to that, the Mexican Football Federation announced fans who chant gay slurs will be banned from stadiums for five years.

A couple of years ago, four LGBTQ+ soccer fans filed a lawsuit saying they were subjected to an onslaught of gay slurs when they attended a match between the U.S. and Mexico at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 2019. The men say they wore rainbow U.S. national team jerseys to celebrate Pride Month.

Mexico fans have shouted the slur at matches since at least 2014. In the lead-up to the 2018 World Cup, the Mexican soccer federation was fined nine times alone, in addition to 15 other national federations, for fans engaging in anti-gay behavior during matches.

Then in 2021, FIFA sanctioned Mexico’s men’s national soccer team after fans yelled the anti-gay slur at matches. During last year’s World Cup, FIFA opened two investigations into potentially anti-gay chants heard by Mexico fans during their matches.

So what is being done to stop this ugly phenomenon? Last May, the U.S. Soccer board of directors adopted a policy that says international teams won’t be permitted to play in the U.S. for a two-year period if their team’s fans engage in discriminatory chants.

As of Friday, CONCACAF officials said they’re “in the process of urgently establishing further details and reports from security and match officials” about what transpired in Vegas, per CNN.

The U.S., Mexico and Canada are slated to co-host FIFA’s men’s World Cup in 2026.

Scroll down for reaction to this ongoing behavior that happened again Thursday…

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