Toronto FC manages to miss the point entirely in their statement about a fan’s sexist banner

Toronto FC and Montreal Impact played a really good derby match this weekend, and the TFC supporters had a great tifo, but instead we get to talk about this really shitty banner.

If you don’t read French, that says “Montreal you suck,” depicting a woman in Impact colors performing oral sex on a man in TFC colors. It’s very clearly sexist, and it’s not clear how it got into the stadium. MLS has been pushing their “don’t cross the line” campaign hard, and Toronto FC has specific rules against banners like these on their website.

TFC had a chance to make a great statement about making an effort to root out this kind of thing and create an environment that’s more welcoming to women. Instead, they trotted out this statement that completely missed the point.

Here’s the dumbest part:

A sign was displayed in the stands that was insulting to many including our opponents, the City of Montreal and their fans.

Insulting the opposing team and city is, unless I’ve slept through the last decade of MLS, generally the point of signs and banners at rivalry games. That’s all in good fun, in the spirit of the game. As Richard Keys might say, it’s just banter. Insulting the city of Montreal wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was the implication that women are submissive sex objects, and therefore inferior to men.

The words “sexist” and “women” do not appear once in Toronto FC’s statement. They don’t get it.