You can say this for Mexican soccer fans: they’ve managed to turn one of football’s least dramatic moments into one of its more controversial and offensive. The pattern is familiar. The opponent’s goalkeeper lines up a goalkick and the chant begins: “Ehhhh…” Then Mexican fans’ voices rise in unison until the kick prompts a cry of “puto!”

The term is homophobic slang for a male sex worker. And its use by fans at matches from Mexico City to California and now Russia continues to give Fifa and the Mexican federation headaches. On Monday, Fifa announced it has opened a disciplinary procedure against Mexico after the chants were heard during El Tri’s victory over Germany.

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Homophobia and homophobic chants are not exclusive to Mexico fans. Fifa issued 51 disciplinary actions over homophobia during 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Of these, 11 were handed to the Mexican federation, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Peru also receiving multiple fines. Fifa additionally cited Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Greece, Hungary and Serbia once each for homophobic chants.

But there is no doubt the chant is most prominent among Mexico fans. “To call your opponent homosexual is definitely along a spectrum of machismo, whereby your opponent is weaker – less masculine,” says Joshua Nadel, author of Fútbol!: Why Soccer Matters in Latin America.

During the World Cup, Fifa will have observers at all 64 matches and will work with security to remove fans engaging in discriminatory behavior, a spokesperson for the world governing body told the Guardian.

“I think that a lot of the hand-wringing is for show,” says Nadel, an assistant professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at North Carolina Central University. “If Fifa and/or the [Mexican federation] can plausibly say, ‘Look, we’re trying to stop it,’ then they can quiet critics without imposing some form of sanction that has real teeth. I’m not saying that they don’t care, but it isn’t among the top priorities of any federation or confederation.”

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On Sunday, the chant made its first appearance in the 25th minute when Manuel Neuer lined up a kick. Quickly taken German goalkicks later in the game seemed to soften its presence.

The origins of the chant in Mexico are hazy, but it started at club level before going international. Two well-known Mexico keepers – Oswaldo Sánchez and Óscar Perez – are said to have been among the first targets of the chant at club level in the mid-00s. The chant occurred sporadically at the 2010 World Cup, but the 2014 tournament in Brazil brought it to a new level. ESPN and Univision offered disclaimers when it was picked up on their broadcasts, and columnists and writers called for its end.

Lamenting Fifa’s perceived inaction on the issue in 2014, Slate’s Juliana Jiménez Jaramillo wrote: “They can abstractly consider what the word means, but they don’t understand the visceral gut punch you feel when you hear a slur in your native language. The Mexican team’s officials, on the other hand, know exactly what puto means. At the very least, they could give a symbolic statement denouncing it, even if it still takes decades for the fans to catch up.”

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In recent years, the federation and players have made their case. Campaigns including public-service announcements from Mexico players have encouraged fans to put a stop to the chants. The Mexican federation this month tweeted – along with a link to rules of civility for the tournament – a direct plea that fans refrain from the chant. But the response suggests fans have no intention of complying.

Many roundly mocked the request with gifs and defiant one-liners, some repurposing the team’s slogan and hashtag for the tournament: “Yo si voy a gritar, porque #NadaNosDetiene.” (“I will be shouting, because #NothingStopsUs”)

Added attention has arguably only served to increase its use in MLS and USL stadiums, where Latino support is strong. In recent weeks, “Pride Night” matches at LA Galaxy and New York City FC were tarnished by the chants. Meanwhile, the new USL club Fresno FC, just months into it existence, has already been forced to denounce the fans’ chants and launch its own anti-discrimination and anti-homophobia campaign.

“It always seemed like a very abstract thing, something we were saying to the opponent in this euphoric, collective way. It was part of the game that was completely unquestioned,” says Romeo Guzman, a first-generation Mexican-American who acknowledged participating in the chant as a teenager and is now an assistant professor of history focusing on Mexican migration at Fresno State University. “As an adult, things have changed. I look at it and I obviously don’t do it, and I wish that we could find ways to change it. It’s homophobic, and it’s not very clever.”

Many fans shrug off accusations of homophobia and insist the chant is just a joke. “We do not scream at the goalkeeper because of his sexual preference, we don’t even care about it,” a YouTube commenter on a 2016 public-service video denouncing the chant wrote. “We shout to create chaos, because it is part of the atmosphere of a stadium in Mexico.”

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For some, the chant merely illustrates wider homophobia in society. “Mexico is not alone in this. It is the most visible because the chant accompanies the national team,” Nadel said. “The problem of homophobia in fútbol, both men’s and women’s – among fans, teams, and federations – is global. It is very hard to root out. Until societies cease seeing homosexuality through the lens of deviance and transgression, we will see homophobia in fútbol.”

Jennifer Doyle, a professor of English at University of California, Riverside, who has written about the “puto” chant, thinks the chant is most likely to stop if fans believe it to be a hex on the national team.

“I really want people to imagine that ‘puto’ is the own goal of curses,” Doyle said. “That when fans of El Tri shout this word at their team’s opponent, every gay Mexican ghost – and that’s a lot of ghosts – commits themselves to extending the team’s curse.”

Maybe she has a point. Something tripped Holland’s Arjen Robben in the box in added time at the 2014 World Cup, and most Mexican fans are convinced it was not defender Rafael Márquez. The resulting penalty kept Mexico out of the quarter-finals – marking El Tri’s sixth consecutive elimination in the last 16.

“Convince fans that it brings bad luck to their own team,” Doyle said, “and this nonsense will stop.”