CONCACAF not likely to truly address homophobic slur

An anti-gay slur used in unison by some Mexican fans following goal kicks is drawing increased scrutiny by CONCACAF.

The chant, a headache for CONCACAF and an international embarrassment, comes after opposition goal kicks and often involves several thousand fans yelling a homophobic, four-letter Spanish word in unison. The Mexican federation as well as CONCACAF have attempted to stamp out the chant, which has drawn negative media attention, through public address announcements as well as temporarily stopping games.

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On Monday’s ‘Counter Attack’ show on SiriusXM, hosts Tony Meola and Brian Dunseth discussed the slur and CONCACAF’s lack of enforcement of their own protocols.

“Does anyone think for one minute that they didn’t start [the chant] until the 87th minutes. So the protocol is you know what, let’s not give warnings over the thing over the PA anymore,” Meola said on the SiriusXM show.

“You mentioned CONCACAF and this is their quote, ‘[CONCACAF] is extremely disappointed at the discriminatory language chanted by some Mexican fans during their Gold Cup match against Trinidad & Tobago.’ Do something about it. The first time stop the game. If the first minute, stopped the game. Second one, pull the players off, Dunny, what do you do about it. Who knows?

“If you have to point cameras at these guys have people plucking them out in the stands as they say it. Eventually it’s got to stop right? But am with you I don’t see an end in sight. I think that’s CONCACAF’s dilemma. But until CONCACAF and everyone down there grows a set of you know what, right? This is, this is going to not go away. It’s not going away.”

CONCACAF appearing weak in stopping the chant

The latest incident of the chant came in Mexico’s scoreless draw last week with Trinidad & Tobago to start the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The fixture was stopped twice late in the match in accordance with CONCACAF’s protocols and is being done to make it seem like the confederation is on top of things.

But the chant was clearly audible on television prior to the two stoppages from the game’s referee, which came in the final minutes of the match. It appears that the enforcement of the protocol is very selective.

This incident follows-up on the Mexican fan behavior at the Nations League final against the United States. Fans repeatedly used this very same homophobic slur in that game as well as hurling bottles at the Americans after they scored in extra time, a goal that would eventually give them the tournament.

Dunseth points out the impact of Mexico’s national team on CONCACAF’s coffers, given their large following in not just their homeland but also in the United States. During the show, Dunseth stated that “Mexico is too big of a cash cow for CONCACAF to suspend them.”

“Yeah, listen, Mexico is a cash cow. Mexico is a cash cow in the United States. And I have a really hard time seeing FIFA, or CONCACAF or whoever, come down as hard as this threat has been hanging over the head of the Mexican national team. Let me ask you this. If you’re a casual fan in the United States, casual, casual Mexica fan,” Dunseth said on ‘Counter Attack’ on Monday.

“You have no skin in the game for World Cup qualifiers. There’s no chance in the world you’re going to be in Mexico City [for qualifiers]. And you’re going to be told that this chance is, you’re not allowed to say this certain goal kicks. How many of those fans do you think really, really care? Tat they think that they that they’re just like ‘Whatever man’ – if it impacts the team and impacts the team.

“This is what I do during these goal kicks. This is what the Mexican fans do during these goal kicks. Like, I understand that I think there’s, I think from the player’s perspective, the players are doing everything they possibly can from Chucky Lozano all the way down… trying to get in front of the microphone in front of the fans in each stadium, and beg them not to not to say during these goal kicks. Like I said, I just can’t see it stopping, I understand that it needs to stop. I’m fully on board with the desire for it to stop.

“I don’t see an end game in sight. I mean, does anybody? Because the casual fan who’s got no skin in the game. The expectation is that Mexico is going to qualify for the World Cup anyways, even if they’re forced to play at home against Jamaica or Honduras, or whoever, it’s still Mexico, it’s still, you know, 80,000 people Azteca, smog, altitude – they’re still good enough to win.”

The show also had an interesting interview with Matthew Hoppe, the United States international forward, who broke out with Schalke in the Bundesliga last season.

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