(Commentary)
For any MLS expansion club, especially one launching without a lower-division predecessor, the first home game doubles as a launch event for a nascent fan base.
Coverage in most outlets focuses on a club's ramp-up through player acquisitions, staff hires and brand launches. New fans undergo their own preparations for an inaugural season. There are chants to draft and rehearse, signs to craft and supporters groups to launch and lead.
San Diego FC began its first MLS season on the road, shocking the reigning champion Los Angeles Galaxy with a 2-0 win. The result sent a message all its own, but it also gave fans even more reason to look forward to the team's first match at Snapdragon Stadium, last Saturday.
Comparatively, the team's home debut wasn't as exciting, with San Diego playing St. Louis City to a scoreless draw. Throughout the match, though, fans made an unmissable first impression by adopting one of the sport's ugliest modern traditions.
If you've watched a game involving the Mexico men's national team, you will likely know what this is about. The chant in question, in which fans shout a Spanish, four-letter homophobic slur at the opposing goalkeeper during his run-up to take a goal kick, has been a staple in Mexican soccer for many years. The origin of the chant is disputed, but it nevertheless has persisted across generations of El Tri fans despite attempts by CONCACAF and FIFA to eradicate it from stadiums with a series of largely ineffective threats.
Now put in a similar position, San Diego issued a statement Monday denouncing some of their fans' behavior.
"What took place during our first-ever home match does not reflect who we are as a club or the values we stand for," the statement said. "The sport of football brings people together, and in San Diego that inclusive spirit thrives. The use of homophobic language in our stadium is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
San Diego's fans are far from the first to bring the chant to MLS. Over the past decade alone, the league has had to respond to instances involving multiple clubs, including Los Angeles FC, the Galaxy, New York City FC and the San Jose Earthquakes. Each time, the league has put forth a strong opposition, with messages in support of inclusivity often coming directly from Commissioner Don Garber.
"In the stands, we collaborate closely with clubs and supporters' groups to engage and welcome LGBTQ+ communities to our game through Pride matches and other initiatives that emphasize everyone is welcome in MLS," Garber told Outsports in 2024.
San Diego's infraction didn't happen in a vacuum, but that's no excuse. For the other clubs, those instances were anomalies from their usual game day atmosphere. Because of this club's short tenure to date, the chant is now one of the few established pieces of its fan culture.
The chant didn't accompany every St. Louis goal kick, but that's largely because of keeper Roman Bürki's approach. Bürki varied his restarts throughout Saturday's game.
Each successive chant was louder than the last -- even after San Diego's stadium announcer issued the following guidance on the fourth such infraction in the 88th minute: "Ladies and gentlemen, discrimination has no place in our sport and in our stadiums, and will not be tolerated. The fan chant that was just used was offensive, and we ask our fans: Do NOT continue to use this chant. Thank you."
The announcer then relayed the same message in Spanish. Nevertheless, fans chanted identically for Bürki's final launch in the third minute of stoppage time. The announcer's next message was more severe, closing with an acknowledgment: "This match may be suspended and abandoned if there is continued discrimination."
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At no point during the match did Apple's broadcasters (the lead MLS commentary team of Jake Zivin and Taylor Twellman) acknowledge the chant or the stadium announcements, both of which were present in the broadcast's audio with crystal clarity. In fact, Zivin's play-by-play persisted during the stadium announcement.
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After the match, San Diego coach Mikey Varas and sporting director Tyler Heaps each denounced the chant. Varas called it "unacceptable" and said "it doesn't represent the players, myself or the club, and it certainly doesn't represent San Diego." Both stressed that it wasn't a chant adopted by every fan, either.
Heaps added that "obviously, us as a club, we'll make sure it does not continue into the future." Of course, that's far easier said than done.
San Diego is now MLS' closest market to the border between Mexico and the United States, with Snapdragon Stadium positioned 20 miles to its north, but it is hardly a stranger to professional soccer. The NWSL's San Diego Wave launched in 2022, while the USL Championship briefly had a club -- San Diego Loyal -- among its ranks from its 2020 season through the end of 2023.
In the wake of the chant rearing its ugly head, San Diego FC may need to look to the shuttered lower-league organization for guidance.
Among the Loyal's first signings was Collin Martin, a midfielder who, while playing for Minnesota United in 2018, became the second openly gay active player in MLS. In a match against Phoenix Rising late in the 2020 season, Martin was targeted with a homophobic slur from an opposing player.
At the height of lockdown, field-level broadcast microphones could pick up far more than usual. After the halftime whistle blew, cameras and mics caught a Loyal player approaching Phoenix coach Rick Schantz to tell him the slur used by a Rising player. Schantz was caught telling Landon Donovan (the U.S. soccer legend who was also the Loyal's co-founder and first head coach) that the incident was "part of the game" as players were "competing." Schantz later said those words were misconstrued, but Donovan responded by saying, "We have to get this out of our game."
Schantz responded with a visible eye roll; Donovan was clearly distraught by the sequence.
San Diego's players showed up for the second half kickoff but chose to walk off the field, turning their 3-1 lead into a 0-3 forfeit. After the game, the club, Martin and Donovan all framed their protest as being in support of something bigger than the game.
Loyal and Rising proactively navigated the aftermath. They strove to find a more productive way to respond to such infractions, rather than hoping to make change through mandatory 90-minute presentations. By 2023, the model influenced by this event's aftermath launched a grassroots-driven educational program called Play Proud, which has been adopted and embraced by more than a dozen clubs in MLS, the NWSL and the USL.
While San Diego FC launched with a different owner and no direct tie to Loyal, this is a legacy that the MLS expansion club has inherited as the city's new professional men's team.
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Many fans who supported the USL side are now among the MLS upstart's ranks, and they will vividly remember what transpired after that 2020 match against Phoenix. There are crucial differences between a fan-led chant and an on-field instance of homophobia targeted at a gay athlete, but the Loyal's handling of its incident will only increase the spotlight on the MLS team's reaction.
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San Diego FC has a week to prepare for its next home match, with the Columbus Crew visiting March 15. How it handles the potential for another wave of homophobic chants will be scrutinized as closely as any action on the pitch.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.