Homophobic slur hurled at gay player sees US football team walk off pitch in protest

The comment towards openly gay Collin Martin came in a match against Phoenix Rising.

Former Everton star Landon Donovan says his second tier USL Championship side, the San Diego Loyal will not stand for hatred.

It comes after players walked off the field for the second time in two weeks, outraged over apparent bigotry.

The team effectively ended their finals chances after forfeiting a 3-1 lead over the Phoenix Rising at Torero Stadium in San Diego after a player made an apparent homophobic insult at openly gay midfielder Collin Martin.

"So at the end of the first half, Collin came over to the fourth official after crazily somehow he got red-carded, and told the fourth official that he had been abused by a homophobic slur by one of their players," Donovon said.

"I asked the referee to do something about it, he said he couldn't, he said he heard the word was said but he didn't know what it means."

The Phoenix Rising player said to have made the slur, denies he made the comment.

Loyal manager, Donovan said he and his players wanted to be on the right side of history.

"No one is going to remember if we beat Phoenix 3-1, they will remember that they stood up for something they believed in and supported their teammate and supported what's right in the world."

"That to me, is what matters more than anything."

The incident follows another walk off last week, when Loyal midfielder Elijah Martin claimed he was racially abused by a LA Galaxy II player.

"So we went through a really hard incident last week in the LA (Galaxy II) match and we made a vow to ourselves, to our community, to our players, to the club, to USL, that we would not stand for bigotry, homophobic slurs, things that don't belong in our game."

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