In an outburst of supreme hypocrisy, FIFA, which happily allowed Qatar to host the World Cup two years ago, is repeatedly sanctioning Mexico over supposed ‘homophobia’.
Apparently Qatar’s legal ban on homosexuality, punishable by up to three years in prison, wasn’t homophobic enough to bother FIFA. Nor are beatings and torture, and forced ‘conversion therapy’. Nor its laws against ‘impersonating the opposite gender’, which attracts six months arrest without trial. FIFA’s advice to players and fans was, basically, ‘Just don’t be openly gay. Above all, no pillow-biting.’
But when rowdy Mexican fans use a long-standing chant to give it to opposing players?
A homophobic soccer chant […] has cost Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines over the past two decades.
It’s no wild guess that the chant, a one-word slur which literally means male prostitute in Spanish, will be heard from the crowd in Guadalajara’s Akron stadium when Mexico hosts the United States in a friendly on Tuesday.
Naturally, the mainstream media are too coy to spell it out, but the word in question is puto.
‘Literally’ is putting a stretch on it. From my admittedly limited Spanish, the word can meaning anything from rent boy to fucking (as in ‘fucking hell’). In any case, it’s not a nice word, but that’s the whole point, it seems. Its usage in this context might broadly be interpreted as akin to faggot.
Multiple sanctions from FIFA and campaigns by Mexican soccer officials to educate fans have not been able to stamp it out. The chant persists in both club and national team soccer in Mexico, not least in games between the two North American rivals who will co-host the 2026 World Cup together with Canada […]
In Guadalajara, a city with a strong soccer tradition which has two teams in Mexico’s top soccer league and another two in the second division, many local fans told The Associated Press that they considered the chant to be harmless and only meant to poke fun at opposing teams.
“Soccer is still a party, and the chant is just for fun. People who yell it mean no offense to the rival,” said Luis Gallardo, a 38-year-old who was wearing the Mexico national team’s black away shirt. “It’s been going on for years and I don’t think it’s going to change.”
The slur, typically used when the opposing goalkeeper takes a goal kick, is hardly the only offensive chant heard in soccer stadiums worldwide, but its persistent use at international tournaments has become a costly embarrassment for the Mexican soccer federation.
Because, as we all know, the iron rule of Clown World is that you must never, ever, upset the Alphabet People. Unless you’re a mediaeval Islamic theocracy, in which case you get an automatic free pass.
The federation has been fined countless times by FIFA for “discriminatory behavior” by supporters, including $114,000 for two incidents during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
In Qatar. See above. You just can’t make this hypocritical stuff up.
The Mexican soccer federation long argued that the chant wasn’t aimed at gays and that the word had different connotations in contemporary Mexican culture.
Mexican fans certainly aren’t about to bow to the rainbow overlords.
Francisco Acuña, a 55-year-old Atlas fan, said the chant was a way for fans to express emotion during the game and shouldn’t be taken too seriously […]
Alejandro Oliva, a 40-year-old soccer fan in downtown Guadalajara, said he didn’t understand why some people find the chant offensive.
“It amazes me that outside of Mexico people believe that it’s a homophobic chant. In Mexico it’s normal and it does not offend anyone,” he said. “I think that even people from the gay community use the word, and they don’t get aggravated.”
FIFA might also want to contrast Mexico’s record on gay rights in contrast to Qatar’s.
But that would expose their utter hypocrisy.
