San Diego Soccer Team Walks Off Field After Homophobic Slur Hurled at Gay Teammate

Update Oct. 15: After an investigation, the USL Championship issued a six-game suspension and undisclosed fine to Phoenix Rising FC’s Junior Flemmings for the use of foul and abusive language.

San Diego’s professional soccer team walked off the field during a match after an opposing team member allegedly said a homophobic slur to an openly gay player.

San Diego Loyal was leading 3-1 against Phoenix Rising when they left the field and forfeited the match after Phoenix Rising’s Junior Flemmings allegedly hurled a homophobic slur toward Collin Martin. Martin is openly gay and was one of the few out gay men in the league when he came out in 2018.

The incident occurred after Martin was issued a red card at the end of the first half. San Diego players surrounded the referee, saying that the Phoenix player should be penalized for allegedly using a slur, ABC News reported. The referee subsequently rescinded the red card.

Loyal’s manager, former U.S. soccer legend Landon Donovan, approached the referee and confronted Phoenix Rising’s coach Rick Schantz at half-time. Schantz told Donovan to not make a “big scene” as Donovan calls the comment an example of homophobia.

“Homophobia, racism, it has no place in our sport,” Donovan said in the exchange. “If you don’t send him off, we’re probably not playing.”

Loyal players returned for the second half and took a knee when the referee blew his whistle to start. And then the whole team walked off.

Flemmings, who denies using a homophobic slur, and the Phoenix Rising head coach have been put on administrative leave while the team investigates the incident.

In a statement, the United Soccer League said that “foul and abusive language of any type has absolutely no place in our society and will not be tolerated in USL matches,” and that the league will launch its own investigation.

The incident comes a week after San Diego Loyal walked off the field in another game after a Los Angeles Galaxy player allegedly used a racist slur directed at a Black player. The Galaxy player was suspended for six games by USL Championship and released by the Galaxy.

“We went through a really hard incident in the LA match and we made a vow to ourselves, the community, to our players, to USL, that we would stand for bigotry, homophobic slurs, things that don’t belong in our games,” Donovan said after the match with Phoenix Rising. “So much so that we made a statement on our signboards we made a statement saying, ‘I will act, I will speak.’ Last week our one regret was we should’ve done something in the moment when Elijah was racially abused. That was our regret. From our players, from me, I wish I would’ve done something. Had we known what had happened I think we would’ve done something.”

Across the professional soccer industry, teams have been dealing with instances of homophobia and racism between players, from fans, and from owners.

Read more about the fight against racial injustice in sports.

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