Football no longer accepts homophobia, even as a joke – The World is a Ball

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A video starring coach Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti instigates curiosity and analysis.

At the press conference, after Juaréz, the club he has managed for five months, lost to Tigres, the club he managed for 16 years (non-consecutive) and in which he is an idol, Ferretti interrupted the journalist who would ask the first question.

“Are there old ones? Sissies? The first? Who’s going to be the first sissy?”, he asked, with good humor, even though his team was beaten 3-0.

Without anyone speaking, he concluded, smiling, very at ease in the press room of the University Stadium, in San Nicolás de los Garza: “Pure males, then?”

Disused, “sissy” is synonymous with “gay” and “effeminate”, among other pejorative nouns and adjectives.

What is unusual when seeing the scene is the reaction of the audience, certainly formed mostly by heterosexual men. There was laughter during the speech of Ferretti, who is Brazilian (born in Rio de Janeiro) and has Mexican citizenship.

In my interpretation, Ferretti, who is 67 years old and has lived in Mexico for almost 45 years, coaching local teams since 1991, wanted women (the older ones) and homosexuals to have priority in the questions.

It seemed to be a joke, a joke. Only there are jokes and jokes.

Currently, in a world that seeks equality between human beings – and it is difficult to conceive that there are people who do not think like that, who think they are better or superior to others, due to sex, gender, race, financial condition, etc. – this kind of joke/joke is not tolerable.

In addition to not being politically correct, Ferretti’s attitude was considered homophobic. In Mexico, and when it comes to football, this is very serious.

The national team and also its clubs have received repeated punishments, whether in the context of national championships or in international competitions, because fans have the habit –which they insist on keeping– of screaming “pissed” when the rival goalkeeper hits the goal .

This word, in one of the translations, means “faggot”.

It is a provocation to the opponent, has the objective of trying to distract and irritate him, but the means for that is a discriminatory term. An affront to homosexuals.

It is possible to interpret that Ferretti wanted to be extravagant (in the sense of surprising), but the result was inconvenience.

More than that, it is perfectly possible to infer that the coach has an aversion, even if he does not confess, to homosexuals, or he would not have said what he said.

Something like this: if you are effeminate, ask first, as it is as if you were a woman, and chivalry prays that “ladies first”. In this case, open homophobia.

Ferretti’s attitude resonated very badly –in the media, on social networks, in the Mexican Football Federation–, and he ended up punished with three games of suspension plus fines by the directors of the entity.

As Juárez has already ended its participation in the Apertura Tournament, taking 16th place among 18 participants, the coach will only have to serve the sentence in 2022.

And, as you might imagine, came Ferretti’s apology. Whether sincere or not, impossible to know. But they came.

“I admit it was not appropriate. I will be more careful with my jokes because these days they are not acceptable because people get offended. I must no longer make inappropriate comments and I apologize to all those who took offense.”

In time: Fan’s head is the head of a non-thinking being. I already went, and I never got tired when in the stadium of offending, along with thousands around me, goalkeeper, player, coach, masseuse, rival team’s wardrobe (referee, then, even more), with the most diverse and hairy swear words, including “faggot”. It was the 1980s, and I was a teenager who became brainless when I became a fan. It seemed normal to call them “faggots”, and now I know that the wrong thing was for older people to let it look normal. We are in the 2020s. It doesn’t seem normal to use “faggots” anymore, and this is not related to intolerance or freedom of expression. This is called respect.

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