Mexico City (AP) – The Mexican football federation has been frustrating that it has failed to stop the homophobic chant heard during a national team’s game. LGBTQ+ activists are appealing directly to local fans to end their offensive habits before next summer’s World Cup.
The chant, a one-word slurred literally means male prostitute in Spanish, is 2014 World Cup in Brazil And subsequent fines, including two incidents at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, had little effect on Swiss francs 100,000 (at the time $114,000).
“There were none of these fines. And what did the federation do? It’s not that much. And what it did is useless,” said Andoni Bello, an LGBTQ+ activist and a critic of the chant who played in Mexico in an amateur soccer tournament hosted by the international gay and lesbian football association.
The United States, Canada and Mexico will be holding the 2026 World Cup starting June 11th next year.
Mexico has been awarded 13 matches Three cities, Monterrey, Mexico City and Guadalajara, spread across stadiums nationwide with fans of the Guadalajara Football Club Atlas, in the capital of Jalisco, where chants were first heard between Mexico and the United States in the 2004 Olympic qualifiers.
Slurries usually occur when the opposing goalkeeper kicks, and more often when Mexican teams are losing the match.
“I’m worried about the violence expressed in the stadium. This is invisible and anonymous,” Bello added. “This normalized violence perpetuates the homophobic hate crimes in this country. It seems very dramatic, but it’s true. If you think nothing is happening, we perpetuate it.”
Initially, federation officials argued that the chant was not intended for gay, and that although the term had a different meaning to Mexican culture, it changed its approach by launching an unsuccessful social campaign. Now they simply ask the fans before matching to not do it.
In 2022, the federation threatened fans to scream slur in the game. Stadium ban for 5 years But they didn’t force it.
“The Federation wanted to find other meanings. It has no other meanings. It’s homophobic,” Bello said. “We are urging our sponsors, agencies, players, teams and fans to change the way we view people and sexuality.”
Bello teams up with Calma Comunidad, a nonprofit that seeks to provide sex education, and the National Council to prevent discrimination, a decentralized institution of the Mexican government that seeks to eliminate discrimination within the country. They approach top-class teams and their fan clubs to try a workshop before the World Cup.
“It’s a great opportunity to create these small, big changes. Here we are resisting the creation and promotion of these changes,” said David Monkada, who works at Karma Comnidad.
Bello added that neither he nor the other organisations are asking fans to have fun at the stadium to avoid it while using homophobic slur.
“I want to beat the team. I want other teams to feel the pressure of the stadium. Of course I’m going to scream and put pressure on them to make mistakes, but I don’t need to make homophobic comments,” Bello added. “It’s not necessary.”
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
