Mexican alcohol company Victoria Beer has come up with an, em... ingenious way to stop their fans from shouting homophobic slurs at the World Cup in Russia this summer.
The Mexican FA has been fined numerous times after fans have chanted 'puto' at opposing players, with the word seen as homophobic by authorities. But Victoria Beer thought they had come up with a solution after launching a campaign to get fans to shout 'Putin' instead.
Regional Trademark Director of ABI Edson Noyola, the company who own Victoria Beer described the move as a positive one, calling the campaign 'ingenious' & 'creative' and stated that the chant was not designed to offend Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Their idea has been met with short shrift in Russia by the countries ambassador to Mexico, Eduard Malayán, who roundly criticised the stunt:
We are not so dumb to understand that it is a play on words. It is not common to shout names or surnames of political personalities in our stadiums.
Malayán then stated that any fans found shouting 'puto' at matches would be taken out of the stadium by Russian security, but exactly how stewards would do that should a massive crowd of Mexicans begin shouting the slur in unison remains to be seen.
After Russia complained about its president’s name being used as a chant, the beer company dropped its campaign and apologised.
There will be a lot of attention on Russia and its treatment of the LGBT community this summer, given anti-gay laws which were passed in 2013 which ban the promotion of homosexuality of homosexual propaganda. LGBT football fans have also been warned against holding hands at the summer showpiece in June.
