Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment said two fans from Sunday’s Toronto FC game will be banned from MLSE facilities for no less than a year after a vulgar confrontation with a local reporter.

The two men being banned are Shawn Simoes – a Sunshine List employee being fired by Hydro One – and Ryan Hart, according to MLSE. This is an “indefinite suspension,” the organization said.

MLSE is still looking for two other goateed men who appeared in the footage with CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt who both said the viral phrase, “F--- her right in the p----.”

At BMO field ahead of Wednesday's game, groups of young men engaged in heated debate, about the fate of the Toronto FC catcallers.

Most agreed that the guys were "idiots," but opinion differed sharply about the gravity of their offense and the justice of their punishment.

"It was kind of funny," said Matt Civichino, conceding that saying "f--- her right in the p---" was also "stupid."

"I feel bad that the dude got fired. I don't see it having anything to do with his job."

Joseph Lancione, Civichino's friend, took a different view.

"I feel bad for the girl. If I were a reporter, I would feel very degraded," he said.

Andrew Dobson, meanwhile, was shocked by the imprudence the men showed in behaving that badly on camera in an era of mass televisual surveillance.

"In the age we're in right now, you can't do that on live TV," he said.

MLSE is reviewing its own security video of the verbal attack on Hunt following the game on Mother’s Day Sunday.

The video “will be an element of their investigation,” MLSE spokesperson Dave Haggith said on Wednesday. “Our security is in the process of investigating,”

That includes identifying a stout man with a BMO shirt and a thinner man with aviator glasses who were filmed with Hunt early in her report.

CityNews journalist Avery Haines tweeted Wednesday that the broadcaster is consulting with Toronto police and the Attorney-General’s office on the possibility of criminal charges against the men.

Police and Attorney-General’s spokespeople had no comment Wednesday morning on any ongoing meetings.

“The Attorney General does not comment on whether legal advice is sought or provided,” ministry spokesperson Brendan Crawley said.

Simoes was one of the men filmed on an ugly exchange with the CityNews reporter. On Wednesday, he was in the process of being fired from his $107,000 a year job as an assistant network management engineer.

“The termination process has started and it’s ongoing,” Hydro One spokesperson Daffyd Roderick said Wednesday. “It’s usually 24 to 48 hours.”

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The incident, which went viral, featured several bystanders mimicking a viral trend seen across North America, in which on-air reporters are harassed with the phrase, “F--- her right in the p----.”

The incident began while Hunt was taping interviews after the Toronto soccer club’s game. Two men “in a row” shouted the offensive phrase while passing by, she told the Star, and “I could hear these other guys conspiring to do it,” Hunt added.

Hunt confronted the group of men while the camera kept rolling, capturing the subsequent expletive-laden exchange.

Mayor John Tory applauded the move by Hydro One.

“I don’t think those kind of reprehensible comments in any way represent any respectable, decent Torontonian — of which the vast majority are just that,” Tory said when asked about the incident during an unrelated press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “I would have fired that person as an employee on the basis that after the reprehensible conduct they went on to then carry on the whole thing on television, which indicates they don’t have an ounce of intelligence.”

Hunt told the Star that it wasn’t her intention to get Simoes fired when she broadcast his remarks.

“Did I want someone to get fired from their job? No way,” she said. “He’s just an example. It’s not just him. It’s a lot of guys out there – and I want that to be known. His behaviour is echoed by many, many men out there.”

Simoes played soccer for Wilfrid Laurier University while attending the school during the early 2000s.

The university released a statement Monday condemning the “extremely offensive and discriminatory comments” at Sunday’s game.

“Laurier is deeply disappointed that Laurier alumni were associated with this incident,” it read.

The trend of shouting a vulgar phrase in a journalist’s microphone has plagued reporters — typically women — in various cities across North America for more than a year.

Hunt told the Star that reporters in Toronto are enduring this “almost on a daily basis.”

With files from Jennifer Pagliaro

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment said two fans from Sunday’s Toronto FC game will be banned from MLSE facilities for no less than a year after a vulgar confrontation with a local reporter.