FIFA fans are outstanding when it comes to their collective love for the game, but when they went overboard and chanted homophobic jibes during the qualifying matches for FIFA 2018, at least five Latin American football associations suffered.

According to the FIFA website, the incident of such action was monitored through the Anti-Discrimination Monitoring System that they usually implement during qualifying matches.

As a result, more than five Latin American teams received sanctions including Honduras, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina. Chile took the hard end of the bargain when FIFA slapped them with a CHF 70,000 fine all coming from four incidents of un-sportsmanship from their fans.

 

Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Uruguay each received a CHF 20,000 fine for a single incident of unlikely sportsmanship act from its supporters. Although the associations' sanctions are the result of accumulated acts from their fans, all of the incidents pertain to the homophobic chants that FIFA greatly condemns.

Acts like this from fans fall under the association's Article 67 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC). Federico Addiechi, FIFA's head of Sustainability said, "Monitoring and Sanctions are not the only elements of FIFA's way forward. They are part of a strategy that includes the FIFA Good Practice Guide on Diversity and Anti Discrimination, training, awareness raising and the support of member associations in developing robust educational and preventive measures."

The Chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee also revealed that for several years now, they have been following the progress and fighting of any form of discrimination in football. And by fighting, they also meant implementing sanctions to those who committed to it. Anti-Discrimination Match Observers have also been one of FIFA's important weapon to determine who falls under the law.

FIFA, however, believes that sanctions alone cannot eliminate such acts from the football fans. They also believe that by the association's initiative to practice respect and educate the football community with equality in order to achieve their goal.

Meanwhile, Pink News reports that in 2010, the LGBT rights group has already expressed their concern over the choice of FIFA to award the hosting of the game to Russia in 2018 and subsequently to Qatar. According to another article from Pink News, the two countries apparently have low tolerance on the LGBT which bring the question whether FIFA is really concerned about the rights of the LGBT community. Peter Tatchell a victim of neo-Nazi-Thugs in Moscow said, "Both countries have very poor human rights records, Not just on gay rights, but also on the rights of women."