Sunday night’s Concacaf Nations League final between Mexico and Panama was delayed briefly due to audible anti-gay chants being yelled inside of SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. In the 82nd minute, a first warning was issued by Concacaf before the game was stopped a couple of minutes later. Play resumed a few minutes after that, and the game was able to conclude with Mexico topping Panama 2-1.
This marked the third straight year these chants have marred the competition, taking place in the 2023 semifinal between the United States and Mexico as well as the 2024 final between the two sides.
Mexico would go on to win the game on a late penalty from Raul Jimenez, whose 92nd-minute penalty was his second goal of the game. El Tri won their first-ever Concacaf Nations League with the win. The United States lost to Canada in the third-place game earlier on Sunday.
History
During previous editions of the Nations League finals, matches involving Mexico have been halted because of the fans’ use of the anti-gay chant. El Tri’s 2021 semifinal win over Costa Rica was paused for three minutes during a penalty shootout, which ended with several fans being ejected from the stadium. Several days later in the CNL final against the U.S. men’s national team, the match once again paused for three minutes during second-half stoppage time. It happened again in 2024.
Anti-discrimination policies
Ahead of the first Nations League finals in 2021, Concacaf instituted a three-step policy that is in line with FIFA’s guidelines on discriminatory language from fans.
At the referee’s discretion, a match will first be temporarily stopped upon hearing discriminatory behavior. That pause will be followed by a stadium announcement, as well as a message on in-stadium screens explaining the halt alongside a request to fans to stop using discriminatory language.
If the behavior continues, the referee can then suspend the match and send the teams to the locker room for what the officials deem an appropriate amount of time, a decision that will once again be followed by announcements. The referee’s final course of action can be to abandon the match.
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