PANAMA CITY -- The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) has vowed to continue to fight recent fines from FIFA over El Tri fans' controversial chant aimed at opposition goalkeepers.
FMF general secretary Guillermo Cantu told ESPN Digital's Rene Tovar on Monday that the federation has not yet paid the fines from FIFA -- who ruled the chant to be offensive -- and that his organization is appealing them.
"The first appeal is with FIFA, then with the CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport]," Cantu said. "We are convinced that our argument hasn't been taken into consideration. What we want is for them to hear us so we can begin a dialogue and exchange points of view about the issue."
Cantu said that while FIFA has taken the literal English translation of a word from the chant, p---, he argues that it has many other meanings in Spanish.
"If you look at the translation, it has only one connotation," said Cantu. "In Mexico, the word, in masculine [form], has others. It even has some [meanings] that are positive and that is precisely our argument."
"In FIFA, when they only take into consideration that [English-language] aspect, there is a big difference between the word we are defending in Spanish in Mexico and the translation in English," he added.
In January, Mexico appealed sanctions for fans' chants during a 3-0 World Cup qualifying victory over El Salvador in the Estadio Azteca on Nov. 13 last year, but FIFA rejected the FMF's argument in May.
The chant is directed at rival goalkeepers as they run up to take goal kicks and first came under the spotlight in at the 2014 World Cup, when FIFA decided to investigate. However, the disciplinary committee of the organization concluded then that the chant "is not considered insulting in this specific context."
Mexico plays Panama on Tuesday in World Cup qualifying in its final match of 2016.