"The chant appears when there is a problem," says Gabriel Galván, a fan who has attended every Mexico national team match since 2009. That's a telling diagnosis — and the problem right now is that Mexico has a World Cup to host, FIFA observers ready to deploy, and a fanbase that hasn't solved a two-decade-old issue despite years of warnings, fines, and stadium bans.
The one-word Spanish slur — which erupts from Mexican crowds whenever an opposing goalkeeper takes a goal kick — was heard loudly at Azteca last month during a friendly against Portugal. Then again earlier this month during a CONCACAF Champions Cup match between Club America and Nashville SC. Referees suspended both games twice. It also surfaced at intercontinental playoff matches in Guadalajara and Monterrey, in games that didn't even involve Mexican clubs — including Iraq vs Bolivia and Congo vs Jamaica — where videos showed Mexican fans actively teaching the chant to African supporters.
FIFA has already punished Mexico for this — it didn't work
This isn't new territory. The chant gained international attention at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, then resurfaced in Russia in 2018 during a match against Germany. The punishment that followed was unprecedented: Mexico had to play World Cup qualifying matches behind closed doors at Azteca for the first time in the stadium's history. Still, fans used the slur again in Qatar 2022 against Poland and Saudi Arabia.
Mexico currently has appeals pending before the Court of Arbitration for Sport over a separate FIFA punishment from a 2024 match against the US. Another violation at a home World Cup wouldn't just mean fines — it would be a reputational catastrophe for a co-host nation in front of the world's largest sporting audience.
Federation president Ivar Sisniega offered the standard response: awareness campaigns, stadium measures, progress made, isolated incidents persist. The federation's current effort is an advertising campaign called "We Are Mexico," designed to highlight positive fan behavior. Before 2018, they tried social media campaigns. None of it has worked.
The co-host pressure changes the stakes entirely
Mexico is scheduled to play group-stage matches in Mexico City and Guadalajara — the city where the chant is believed to have originated. The irony is sharp. FIFA has partnered with the Fare Network to place observers at every World Cup match specifically to flag discriminatory behavior. The infrastructure for sanctions is already in place.
LGBTQ+ activist Andoni Bello, who has represented Mexico in amateur tournaments organized by the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association, cuts through the cultural-context arguments the federation once used to deflect criticism: "This permissiveness that nothing happens and that it's cultural means that hate crimes also remain cultural."
The chant's recent reappearance tracks with Mexican club football's poor results — Cruz Azul and América were both eliminated from CONCACAF competition around the same period. If frustration is the trigger, and Mexico underperforms on home soil in June, the pressure inside those stadiums will be significant. Any slip could cost the federation far more than a fine.
Galván thinks expensive World Cup tickets will change the crowd demographic enough to reduce the risk. Maybe. But Mexico spent years saying the same thing about qualifying campaigns, friendlies, and continental tournaments — and the chant kept coming back.
