CONCACAF’s Twitter account tells the tale of the ugliness that was Thursday night’s Nations League semifinal between the U.S. men’s national team and Mexico.
A few hours before kickoff, the confederation sent out a link spotlighting its “highly impactful” What’s Wrong is Wrong anti-discrimination campaign.
Next, a video of Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa imploring his team’s fans to refrain from using “the chant” during the game.
But those two posts were closely followed by a statement from after the match, which was titled: “Discriminatory chants during CNL Semifinal.”
It was, essentially, an admission of defeat.
CONCACAF strongly condemns the discriminatory chanting by some fans during the 2023 CONCACAF Nations League Semifinal match between Mexico and the United States.
Chants heard during the game led to the activation of the anti-discrimination protocol by the match officials. Additionally, security staff ejected several fans for engaging in unacceptable behavior in the stadium.
These incidents were extremely disappointing and tarnished what should have been a positive occasion to showcase high quality football in our region.
The Confederation is in the process of urgently establishing further details and reports from security and match officials and will make a further statement in short order.
Referee Iván Barton failed his task on the night, opting to not utilize CONCACAF and FIFA’s Three-Step Procedure on many instances when the chant — widely considered to be a homophobic slur — was clearly audible. That gave some Mexico fans the permission they needed to use the chant with impunity.
Barton ended the game, a 3-0 U.S. win, four minutes early after another instance of the chant. Bizarrely, CONCACAF said after the match that the referee did not end the game early because of the chant. But why else would he have ended the match with four minutes left in stoppage time?
It served as another way of removing the blame from the offending fans.
But beyond the events of any single match lies this simple truth: CONCACAF and FIFA have completely failed to eradicate the chant thus far. It’s painfully clear that the fines levied against Mexico’s federation, and even home games forced to be played behind closed doors, have not been sufficient punishments.
It appears that the next step is now the only option: Mexico getting hit with points deductions or being forced to forfeit matches.
USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner, the target of many of the chants during his punts and goal kicks, pleaded with fans to stop at various points of the game.
It didn’t work.
“You could tell it’s coming,” Turner told reporters in quotes published on Yahoo Sports. “And it’s distracting. It goes against everything that we stand for on our side.
“We’ve been very vocal and open about the strength of our team being our diversity, the strength of our nation being its diversity. So, to use something so divisive during a game, a spirited game — and maybe the play sort of set the flares off in the stands, but it has no place in the game.”
USMNT coach B.J. Callaghan added: “In terms of the chant, I want to make it very clear first and foremost for our beliefs and our culture, it has no place in the game. And so that’s something that we’ve stood against before and will continue to stand against.”
But there seems to be nothing anybody, either from CONCACAF, FIFA, the USMNT or Mexico, can say to make a vocal subset of fans stop. The time for fines, statements, and games behind closed doors is over. Fans might only respond when their actions directly result in El Tri losing games.
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