Fifa hit Chile with a two-match stadium ban and a 30,000 Swiss franc (US$29,000) fine on Monday for a fresh bout of homophobic chanting by their fans. The Copa America champions are barred from playing at their Santiago home stadium for matches against Paraguay and Ecuador next year.
This is the eighth time since October 2015 that Chile has been sanctioned by Fifa for similar homophobic incidents by their supporters. The latest case involved chanting at Chile’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Uruguay on 15 November.
Fifa announced in a statement that the ban and fine “relate to homophobic chants by the team’s fans and follow previous sanctions for similar incidents during the preliminary competition of the 2018 Fifa World Cup”.
Fifa also took action against Romania following incidents which marred their qualifier against Poland in Bucharest last month. Romanian fans threw a firework at Poland’s Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandowski and on the terraces supporters from both countries fired flares at one another, causing the game to be halted at one point.
Fifa fined Romania 95,000 Swiss francs and banned them from playing at their Bucharest stadium for one match with a second match ban suspended.
Isabel Cocker/The Santiago Times Staff SANTIAGO – President Michelle Bachelet has become the first South American head of state to win the prestigious United Nations “Champions of the Earth” prize. The award, given Tuesday by […]
Tens of thousands of Chileans gathered in the central square of Santiago, Plaza Italia, renamed Plaza Dignidad, to mark the one-year anniversary of mass protests that leftover 30 dead and thousands injured, with peaceful rallies […]
SANTIAGO – Conservative Sebastian Piñera, who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014, defeated center-left Alejandro Guillier in a runoff election to assume the office at La Moneda on Sunday. The 68-year-old billionaire […]
