Tuesday, August 23, 2022

The Swiss Football League's token punishment for Marius Müller's homophobic speech

After a 1-4 loss on Saturday, 14 August 2022, FC Lucerne goalkeeper Marius Müller criticized his teammates with a homophobic slur: "Dieses schwule Weggedrehe geht mir tierisch auf den Sack" (loosely, "this gay turning-away gets on my nerves"). Today, the Swiss Football League reprimanded Müller and fined him 2000 CHF, with no match suspension at all. They justified this token punishment because Müller had expressed his frustration, had not insulted specific people, and had apologized. But this "heat-of-the-moment" argument is ridiculous: Müller actually made his statement not once but twice, in two different interviews. So he liked it enough after saying it once that he consciously thought it was worth repeating. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 23 August 2022)

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