Homophobic chanting at football matches could be made illegal in the U.K. as part of a campaign to make the sport "truly open to everyone".
In a joint effort, retired Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas and English Conservative Party MP Damian Collins are seeking to extend the 1991 Football Offences Act — which already bans indecent and "racialist" chanting — to outlaw chants and indecent gestures which reference sexual orientation or gender identity.
The draft bill will be launched in Westminster on Monday, with the chair of the Football Association's inclusion advisory board calling it "valuable action for the government to take".
It comes after Fifa fined the Mexican Football Federation 10,000 Swiss francs for singing homophobic chants during Mexico's World Cup match against Germany last week.
Collins — who chairs the U.K. government's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee — told HuffPost it is "wrong" that homophobic abuse is not treated in the same way as racist abuse under current laws.
