Regrettable suspension of the match between Mexico and USA due to homophobic shouting

The U.S. 3-0 drubbing of Mexico ends Thursday in Las Vegas (USA) in an unfortunate way, as repeated homophobic shouts in Spanish heard from the stands forced the match to end with a few minutes left to play.

This second CONCACAF Nations League semifinal (the first was won 0-2 by Canada against Panama) pitted the U.S. against Mexico at a packed Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas with a great atmosphere and 61,000 spectators in the seats, according to the U.S. broadcast.

The homophobic shouts as U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner was about to strike the ball. began to be heard in the first half, prompting the stadium authorities to call on the screens to stop these discriminatory insults.

This disgraceful behavior -which could be heard perfectly on the television broadcast- continued later on and, when the clock showed 89 minutes and already with 3-0 on the scoreboard, the Salvadoran referee Ivan Barton, following the protocol for these cases, momentarily stopped the match while the venue’s public address system asked the spectators to stop the shouting.

Because the second half had been very rough and with constant clashes between players (there were four expulsions, two for each team), the referee decreed 12 minutes of stoppage time.

However, and when there were still several minutes left to the end of that added time, the referee ended the match before the hour mark.again following the protocol, when he noticed that a large part of the spectators were still shouting homophobic shouts.