The homophobic fan chant at Mexico matches and protocols in place to stop it

New York Times

20-03-2025

Even after a turbulent past couple World Cup cycles, Mexico is undeniably a giant in Concacaf.
The men's national team is the only program beyond Europe and South America to have won an official global FIFA competition, having won the 1999 Confederations Cup. It has won a record nine Gold Cups since Concacaf reformatted the tournament for its 1991 iteration, two more than the United States and eight more than Canada. It famously reached the World Cup quarterfinal twice (both on home soil, in 1970 and 1986) and is the only Concacaf program to participate in each installment since 1994.
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Despite all of their accomplishments, one competition (albeit a nascent one) has eluded El Tri: the Concacaf Nations League, which kicks off its fourth four-team finals with a pair of semifinal matchups on Thursday.
The USMNT has won the first three installments of the competition, with Mexico finishing as runners-up in 2019-20 and 2023-24 while finishing third in 2022-23 (losing, again, to the U.S.). They'll play again in front of what's expected to be a staunchly pro-Mexico crowd in Los Angeles as they go in search of a first title.
Unfortunately, that same raucous support has arguably made a greater impact in the young Nations League's history than the on-field product. In each of the first three iterations, Mexico's fans have marred their matches with an infamous four-letter homophobic chant.
That precedent will once again ensure that Mexico's matches are closely scrutinized — not just by their potential opponent in Sunday's third-place match or final (which will be either the U.S. or Panama), but by the sport's governing bodies that have spent over a decade trying to eradicate the hateful chant from Mexico fans' gameday routine.
The origin of 'the chant' is frequently disputed, although some cite 2004 matches in Guadalajara (including an Olympics qualifier against the United States) as its point of origination. Ultimately, its sustained presence across many decades is of greater importance to FIFA, Concacaf and the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (FMF). It is not a chant that elicits 100% participation among El Tri fans, nor is it solely adopted by fans of the national team. Mexico is also not alone in being sanctioned over the years due to unruly and inappropriate fan behavior.
Nevertheless, this chant is inextricably linked to the Mexico men's national team.
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The chant — in which fans shout a Spanish, four-letter homophobic slur at the opposing goalkeeper during his run-up to take a goal kick — first elicited attempted action from FIFA following its usage at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups. Mexico and its fans went unpunished after the tournaments in Brazil and Russia. Simply issuing fans warnings proved futile, as Mexico was sanctioned on 12 occasions in 2018 qualifying alone for a sum total of $160,000.
Ahead of the 2018 World Cup, the sport's global governing body introduced a three-step protocol in an attempt to curtail the chant. The first step was to stop play and issue a verbal warning to fans over the stadium speakers, while the second step was to suspend the match and send the players to their dressing rooms 'until the offending behavior stops,' which became difficult to gauge for an event-specific shout during a game. The final step was to abandon the match after consulting the team's captains and venue security, hedged by calling this 'a very last resort.'
FIFA also made Mexico play three of its World Cup qualifiers without any fans in attendance in reaction to the chant: its first qualifier, and then two subsequent games after the chant persisted following the initial closed-door match in matches against Canada and Honduras.
Concacaf's own three-step protocol is similar to the one FIFA introduced, with the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation implementing a version in 2019. This version, which is used in the Nations League, sees 'step one' involve a verbal notice from the stadium announcer, 'step two' require a referee to halt the match for a period of time, and 'step three' sending players back to the locker room while officials determine whether or not to resume the match after a break.
In June 2021, at the inaugural Concacaf Nations League in Denver, there was a brief delay in second-half stoppage time after a U.S. goal kick. Things escalated significantly in 2023, when fan chanting in Las Vegas caused the referee to abandon the U.S.'s 3-0 semifinal win over Mexico while in second-half stoppage time, ending the match a few minutes early. The following year, the 2024 Nations League final in Dallas was paused ('step three' of the protocol) due to the increasingly vocal usage of the chant at the end of a match the U.S. won 2-0.
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After the 2024 instance, FIFA president Gianni Infantino posted on social media that 'Discrimination, of any kind, has no place in football and no place in society, and I call on the relevant authorities to ensure that those responsible are held to account for their actions.'
One has to assume that Infantino himself is among, if not at the fore, of those relevant authorities.
To the FMF's credit, the federation has proactively tried to end the chant's prevalence following the events in 2014. Star players like Javier Hernández, Rafael Márquez and Guillermo Ochoa have all participated in federation-issued videos asking fans not to continue using the chant.
Concacaf launched a 'What's Wrong is Wrong' anti-discrimination campaign 2021 and repurposed it in 2023 to coincide with the U.S.-Mexico Nations League semifinal.
The chant has also been used by fans of clubs in Liga MX and in MLS. 2025 expansion club San Diego FC saw its inaugural home match marred by the chant, with the club issuing multiple stadium addresses in both English and Spanish asking fans to stop the behavior. Apple TV's broadcast picked up at least six clear instances of the chant being shouted. LAFC previously had success in eradicating the chant from their matches, with players and organized fan groups preaching messages of inclusion.
It's of course not fair or accurate to generalize every Mexico fan as a participant or homophobic. The acts of a loud minority should not taint the entirety of a fanbase. But until the chant subsides on a wholesale level, the stigma surrounding El Tri matches will remain – and with a World Cup partially taking place on Mexican soil in 2026, the world is watching.