It all started as a bit of a joke, just not a funny one. Now infamous enough to be known as ‘the chant’ or ‘the p-word’ even in English, historical accounts say the homophobic chant that has remained persistent in Mexican soccer began in Guadalajara. Atlas fans were infuriated by goalkeeper Oswaldo Sánchez’s departure from their team and his eventual return to their rivals Guadalajara. That’s when they tweaked a traditional gridiron football ritual, building up noise before belting out an anti-gay slur whenever Sánchez took a goal kick.
The chant appeared again – this time with more venom – at a game between USA and Mexico in a 2004 pre-Olympic tournament in Guadalajara. Mexico fans were still smarting from El Tri’s loss to the US at the 2002 World Cup. That led to 60,000 Tapatios directing the slur at US goalkeeper DJ Countess during Mexico’s 4-0 win. The ugly trend has continued, and grown, despite campaigns from the Mexican football federation, Fifa fines, and efforts from Liga MX, who named a full season after an alternative chant in 2021.
Last week the chant once again made an unwanted appearance, during San Diego FC’s home debut as an MLS expansion team.
The club reacted swiftly. Sensing the opportunity to nip things in the bud, San Diego head coach Mikey Varas made statements after the match, in English and Spanish, condemning the chant.
“Look, we can’t have racism, we can’t have discriminatory words in our sport, at our club, in our community. It’s unacceptable,” he said. “It doesn’t represent me, the players or the club and doesn’t reflect San Diego as a community. This is a diverse community that is full of love. We can’t go and say things like we did in this game … This was people in the general seats, not everyone, but a group we heard and I want to say that if they’re going to keep doing that it’s better that they don’t come to matches. Those aren’t the values we have.”
San Diego sporting director Tyler Heaps echoed that sentiment. Clips of Heaps’ and Varas’s statements were posted on the club’s social media accounts next to celebratory posts about the team’s successful start to life in MLS. The team continued its push Monday, releasing a statement from club ownership saying they “will take immediate steps to address this behavior and will communicate a detailed plan prior to the next home match.”
The club’s effort toward inclusivity has perhaps been necessitated by its location. San Diego has wisely marketed itself not just to communities across San Diego but also to fans over the border in Tijuana. The cities are so close fans in Tijuana can easily cross over from Mexico for the match and be home in time for dinner. To this end, the team signed Hirving Lozano, a wildly popular Mexico international, to be the face of the franchise. “El Chucky” has been welcomed by throngs of fans at every press tour stop, many wearing his green Mexico jersey.
San Diego should want those fans at matches. The Mexican population is a huge part of the city’s fabric, and it makes sense for a brand new team to want as much buy-in as possible from all parts of the city’s population. But that’s also part of the problem. Mexican fans – although by no means all of or exclusively them – are the most likely to use the forbidden chant, which itself makes other groups feel like a San Diego FC game may not be a space for them after all.
Fans who yell the word will typically say they aren’t trying to hurt anyone, or that it isn’t a slur. They argue that the word can be used in other contexts in Spanish: it is often heard when someone complains about traffic or is used to add emphasis to something great. In soccer, though, its usage and the context around it is clearly negative. No one shouts the word at their own team. Many LGBTQ and human rights groups in Mexico have asked for the chant to end, and they’re making that request for a good reason.
So, what now? On-the-spot enforcement is difficult, not least because it can be difficult to suss out who is yelling the word in the first place. Part of the Mexican FA’s efforts to stamp it out include asking security workers to throw out offenders, something anyone who has attended a crowded match knows is highly improbable even with highly trained personnel, let alone overmatched security contractors. The Mexican FA has also threatened fines and point deductions, but some frustrated Mexico fans have used this as a misguided excuse to force change, using the chant when their team is losing in an effort to enact those very sanctions.
It’s also clear that many casual fans are yelling the word to show they’re in on the “joke.” There’s a feeling that yelling the word means you’re in the know, not a villamelón, a fairweather fan. A home opener is an event that attracts many more of those fans than subsequent matches; it’s a game to see and be seen at rather than one midway through the long slog of a season.
Those who yelled the word may think they are being savvy, but they expose themselves as anything but. The chant isn’t a clever chirp from the supporters’ section that gets under a rival’s skin or a new song for a new hero on a brand-new team. It’s a boring, dismal device whose only impact is embarrassing the broader fanbase and hurting people right next to them in the stands.
San Diego FC’s statements seem to acknowledge this. If their efforts to eradicate the chant are successful, officials have to hope it’s something that can be replicated elsewhere. The magnifying glass of the 2026 World Cup is coming to North America next year, and far too many fans are still trying to get a laugh out of the same tired ‘joke’ that isn’t funny now, and never was.
