Mexico beat Germany 1-0 during Sunday’s World Cup games. Unfortunately, that win came with some homophobic chants.
According to the LA Times, Mexico supporters in the game chanted “puto” when German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer went to take his goal kick. This is a common occurrence for fans of the team, as the Mexican federation has been fined multiple times for similar incidents.
Players for team Mexico have asked fans to stop the chant to no avail, and today, FIFA announced that it would take further disciplinary actions against Mexico, but has yet to specify what that will look like.
These chants come at a particularly bad time as the World Cup has already had to deal with the bad press of a gay couple being attacked and the general fears that gay fans have had since last year.
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According to The Guardian, other countries have been fined for similar issues, with a total of 51 disciplinary actions taken over homophobia during the qualifying games. Without a doubt, though, the most prominent issue is with Mexico fans.
This example serves as an important reminder that although homophobia is alive and well in Russia, visiting countries are also bringing cultural homophobia with them, too.
Fifa now says an announcement “was prepared but the chants ceased.” Chants were included in official match report.
— James Ellingworth (@jellingworth) June 18, 2018
As reported by AP’s James Ellingworth, FIFA has been very loud and proud about their new system to stop discrimination cases, but in this case, they had not used the system at all. The first step is for the referee to stop the game and have a public announcement that addresses the issues. FIFA said that they had an announcement ready, but by then the chanting had stopped.