US football great Landon Donovan has praised his San Diego Loyal players, after they sacrificed their USL Championship playoff hopes over an alleged homophobic slur.
Midfielder Collin Martin claimed Rising rival Junior Flemmings called him a "batty boy" at the end of the first half, with Loyal leading 3-1.
Video caught Donovan and Rising manager Rich Schantz in a heated argument ass the teams headed into their halftime break, with the former saying: "We have to get this out of our game… they're calling him gay. It's homophobia."
Schantz told Donovan to stop making "a big scene" and his players were just "competing", although he's since apologised and wasn't "excusing any alleged homophobic behavior".
Both teams returned to the field for the second half, but Loyal players took a knee before walking off the pitch.
The incident comes a week after Loyal midfielder Elijah Martin was allegedly subjected to a racial slur against LA Galaxy II. San Diego forfeited the point earned from their draw in protest, while the accused player was released by the Galaxy.
USL Championship officials are investigating the latest homophohic charge, although Flemmings denies using the slur.
Forfeiting the match has ended Loyal hopes of reaching the playoffs in their debut season, but that doesn't concern Donovan, who co-owns and manages the team.
"Our guys, to their immense credit, just said: 'We're not going to stand for this'," he says.
"They were very clear in that moment that they were giving up all hopes of making the playoffs, even though they were beating one of the best teams in the league handily.
"But they said, 'that doesn't matter, there's things more important in life and we have to stick up for what we believe in', so they made the decision to walk off.
"The players, in the heat of the moment, in the passion of the moment, still wanted to play.
"They were kicking Phoenix's ass and that's a great feeling as a soccer player, but if we want to be true to who we are as a club, we have to speak and we have to act."
Donovan, who played more than 150 games for the United States, says both the Loyal and Rising had planned to mark the previous week's racial abuse in the 71st minute.
He insists the team's one regret from the previous incident was not doing something "in the moment" after Martin was racially abused, so he was proud of his players for taking a stance over the alleged homoephobic slur.
Flemmings has tweeted that he was the player accused, but claims the accusations are false.
"At no point did I say a homophobic slur towards Collin Martin," Flemmings says. "I do not know Collin personally, but I respect all of my opponents equally, Collin included.
"I stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ movement."
The USL is a second-tier US competition, below Major League Soccer.
Collin Martin was previously a member of Minnesota United and teammate of All Whites defender Michael Boxall.
Martin was the only openly gay man in America’s top five sports leagues.
