Ralf Rangnick, Austria’s coach, excluded three footballers for singing homophobic chants. Guido Burgstaller, Marco Grüll and Niklas Hedl, international footballers for Rapid Vienna, were crossed off the squad list scheduled to play two friendlies against Slovakia (March 23) and Turkey (March 26).
A 65-year-old German, Rangnick announced the measure this Tuesday during the press conference in which he presented those summoned. The event aroused great interest in Austria after the scandal that broke out on February 25, in the epilogue of the derby between Rapid and Austria Vienna. Rapid won and their players, accompanied by some leaders, met with the fans in the stadium to celebrate the victory by singing songs with a megaphone. “We are not violets (the colors of Austria) with warm asses!” the footballers shouted. They were joined by Steffen Hofmann, the manager, who used the loudspeaker to call the other team’s players “assholes.” Rapid had not won the derby since 2019. The insults were recorded and published on social networks. The incident generated great social alarm during the following weeks.
The Austrian football federation threatened Rapid with three points deducted from the League standings and sanctioned the offending players with a five-game suspension. As he advanced Der Standardthe Austrian federation has sanctioned Rapid with the loss of two points for the start of the next season, a decision that the club has already announced that it will appeal. Guido Burgstaller, the first to take the megaphone, Marco Grüll and Niklas Hedl were punished to play club matches. His fate in the national team remained to be known. Rangnick dispelled doubts this Tuesday. “I hope the kids seriously address this issue and what it means for people to be publicly insulted or discriminated against,” the coach said. “Pay lip service is not an apology. “I don’t tolerate it on my team, I’m at the other end of the value scale.”
“Everything we defend with the national team is diametrically opposed to the other end of the scale of values represented by these insults,” declared Rangnick, who did not find the Rapid players’ call to the Austria captain to apologize enough to mitigate it.
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