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 [los colores del Austria] with a warm ass!”, 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.
