US Soccer Moves to Ban Anti-Gay Chants at Games

The U.S. Soccer Federation has moved to ban anti-gay chants from fans during games that the USSF hosts, following a similar ban enacted earlier this year by Mexico's Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF), ESPN reported.

The resolution is still in a preliminary phase, ESPN noted, and "will now be forwarded to the USSF's Rules Committee to ensure that it does not conflict with any other policies."

"The Rules Committee will then submit a formal resolution to the Board for full implementation," the article said. "Previously, the USSF didn't have a policy against discriminatory chants."

Sports website Bleacher Report detailed that USSF will "implement FIFA's three-step protocol at all U.S. soccer matches."

The protocol, meant to "combat racism, bigotry and other forms of discrimination," was introduced by the sport's global governing body three years ago, Bleacher Report recalled.

"If a discriminatory action occurs, the first step of the protocol is for the referee to stop a match with a stadium announcement to fans to explain the decision," the article explained.

"If the actions continue, the second step is to suspend the match and have teams go to their locker rooms with another announcement made.

"The third step would be to abandon the match."

The FMF put its ban in place after FIFA penalized Mexico several times, fining FMF for anti-gay chants uttered from the stands.

As previously reported, FMF vowed in January to punish fans hurling anti-gay chants with a five-year ban from attending matches.

FMF president Yon de Luisa stated that the measures would be "applied rigorously in all home games organized by the Mexican Football Federation."

In a statement, the FMF reiterated "a position of zero tolerance for any offensive or discriminatory comments in the stadiums" and spoke of a "collaboration" intended to "eradicate discriminatory chants from our game."