Mexico were last night facing punishment for their fans’ homophobic chanting during their World Cup victory over Germany.

Fifa opened disciplinary proceedings against the Mexican Football Federation after thousands of the country’s supporters repeatedly yelled “puto” - the Spanish word for a male prostitute - during Sunday’s game at the Luzhniki Stadium.

The chanting - seemingly directed primarily at Manuel Neuer - was filmed by the governing body’s independent anti-discrimination observers and reported to those responsible for policing bigotry in the stadium.

The abuse was the first major test at the World Cup of Fifa’s so-called ‘three-step process’ for dealing with bigotry from the stands.

The first step involves the referee stopping the game so a warning can be issued over the public address, which, if ignored, is then escalated to the match being suspended and eventually abandoned.