NEWS: The Sunday Column

Paul Schmidt-Troschke's Sunday column on all things football and the World Cup. 

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to this week's World Cup Football, etc. Sunday column with me, Paul Schmitroschke. The Mexican Football Federation, or FMF for short, just announced and already launched a last-minute campaign against homophobic chants in Mexican stadiums as the start of the 2026 World Cup is edging closer by the day. And the only unexpected thing is the late announcement of such a campaign, because Mexican football has a by now decades-long problem with homophobic chance in its stadiums. But first, in general, the Mexican football fan experience is absolutely amazing, as I have been fortunate enough to live it through numerous times already. Not only the stadium atmosphere and the accompanying culinary experiences are great, but Mexican fan culture rose to global fame by making the Mexican Wave the country's signature group celebration in which every single fan in the stadium becomes part of a choreographed wave flowing around the ranks. This tradition goes back to the 1986 World Cup, Mexico's second time hosting the tournament, but then starting in the 2000s, an upcoming group chant started to rival the Mexican wave in its popularity, but for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. Whenever the rival goalkeeper is about to take a goal kick, fans started to voice a and once the ball flew, puto followed. For those without any knowledge of the Spanish language, puto can mean many things, all bad, but in this context it is translated to something like gay prostitute. As easy as it is to identify the issue with this chant, as difficult it is to fight its usage. And even if you do not hear it in every match, it seems to be an integral part of the Mexican fan chant repertoire. The problem is so deeply rooted that the FMF was punished already more than 18 times by FIFA since 2014 for homophobic chants by Mexican national team football fans. The forms of punishment applied by FIFA range from official warnings, small monetary fines, larger repeat offender fines, over match stoppages and early match endings, to even partial or full stadium closures and threats of point deductions. While the fines usually do not exceed the 150,000 US dollar mark, the usage of closed door matches in 2021 are quite drastic measures, which still could not lead to any measurable change in fan behavior, at least not among a meaningful number of fans. The FMF does not come across well either, since any implementation of measures against the Chant only came into fruition after FIFA enacted multiple disciplinary actions against the governing body of Mexican football, which shows that the issue at heart, namely the fight against homophobia, was not really a true intent to begin with. And the kind of action plan FIFA developed and forced upon the FMF to use in the Liga MX, the Mexican First Division, is unrivaled worldwide. It entails a three-step approach the referee must follow when he hears the chant in a match. The first measure in the so-called anti-discrimination protocol causes the referee to stop the match and issue a warning to the fans, while stadium and security staff try to identify and eject the offenders, and public announcements are made demanding the fans to quit the chant. After a couple of minutes, the match restarts. If the chant continues, the first official then suspends the match and sends the players into their locker rooms, followed by a cooling off period after which the game is continued. And if all that did not help and fans continue with the offense, the referee has the authority to permanently abandon the game. Further, Liga MX introduced a mandatory digital fan ID system. Fans must register and scan a QR code along with identification to enter stadiums, a system that is backed by facial recognition technology. This removes fan anonymity and allows authorities to track down individuals yelling the slur. And since the League operates on a zero tolerance policy for identified offenders, any fan caught and ejected for shouting the chant faces a five-year ban from attending matches in any Mexican football stadium. But if a club's fan base repeatedly violates the rules and triggers the match protocol, the FMF punishes the club directly by forcing it to play future home matches in completely empty stadiums. In the case of La Liga MX, the protocol showed its effectiveness already. But since clubs are, above all, economic undertakings, the threat of a complete loss of ticket revenue gave individual clubs the opportunity to solve the issue for themselves, which led to the implementation of some very productive and creative approaches. For example, Liga MX Club Tigres, based in Monterey, made the following offer to its fans. Quit the channel for a single match, and the club will pay for the renovation of an elementary school in the metropolitan area of Monterey. The fans' reaction, say less. The initiative turned out to be an enormous success, benefiting everybody, with six schools being renovated in cooperation with businesses and fan volunteers. More than 1,000 children can now learn under improved conditions. And the club was not only granted its original demand, but got rewarded with a massive PR victory as well. If that's not a role model solution, I'm a monkey's uncle. So that's it from us for today.

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