November 17 – FIFA has been adjudged to have wrongly viewed chanting by Mexican fans towards opposition goalkeepers at World Cup qualifiers as homophobic.
Mexico appealed against fines totaling 35,000 Swiss francs for the chants at games against El Salvador in November 2015 and Canada in March 2016.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has now ruled that the chanting was insulting rather than discriminatory and replaced the fines with a warning.
“(The words) could still be considered discriminatory or insulting in nature and should not be tolerated in football stadiums,” the court said. However FIFA was partially blamed for having helped to create a “wrong – but legitimate- understanding”.
Fans in Mexico typically use the relevant chant, which translates as “male prostitute,” to insult opposing goalkeepers as they take a goalkick. Widely considered a slur, some argue there is no discriminatory intent.
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