Mexico receives a 17 fine for homophobic yelling; will play games without an audience

The Mexican team received its seventeenth sanction on Monday for the homophobic screams of its fans, consisting of a fine of 109,800 dollars and two games behind closed doors, FIFA reported.

“A fine of 100,000 Swiss francs and two games without spectators,” FIFA announced as punishment to the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) for “discrimination (discriminatory conduct of its fans).”

Read more | Why does FIFA penalize Latin American teams so often for homophobic yelling?

This new punishment was originated by the screams of the fans in the matches that Mexico played in October against Canada and Honduras at the Azteca Stadium for the Concacaf World Cup, and will be carried out against Costa Rica on January 30, 2022 and against Panama on February 2nd.

With the latest punishment, the FMF has received sanctions from FIFA 17 for homophobic screams and the accumulated amount of all those fines amounts to about 13.7 million pesos.

For the Mexican team there will already be three games without an audience at home as punishment for the homophobic cry: the first was in September, against Jamaica at the Azteca Stadium at the beginning of the octagonal of the Concacaf qualifying for Qatar-2022.

It is common for Mexican supporters to express homophobic shouts to rival goalkeepers and several times their leaders and even players tried to draw attention to these demonstrations, but they were ignored.

“To the fans in the stadium tomorrow and in the following matches … Leave it now (the homophobic cry), we, the players of the national team, the coaching staff, asked goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa after the match against Costa Rica for the Concacaf Nations League, on June 5.

The sanction of two closed-door games would affect the cities of Guadalajara and Zapopan since the FMF was evaluating removing the tricolor from the Azteca Stadium as a measure against the scream and taking it to play the following commitments of the octagonal of the Tricolor to the Jalisco and Akron stadiums.

With 14 points, Mexico leads the octagonal of the Concacaf that grants three direct spots to Qatar-2022 and the possibility of a fourth ticket in intercontinental playoffs.