Defender Martin Hinteregger from Eintracht Frankfurt has firmly defended himself against allegations of right-wing extremism.
“I have friends all over the world through my time in professional football and also privately, and I clearly reject accusations that I am right-wing and continue to work against any kind of discrimination,” wrote the 29-year-old on Instagram.
Hinteregger wanted to organize a hobby tournament in his home town of Carinthia next week, but Heinrich Sickl, a well-known right-wing extremist from Austria, apparently also helped organize the “Hinti Cup”.
“I have no knowledge of past or future activities on the part of the Sickl family, I just want to organize a football tournament and nothing more,” Hinteregger explained.
He will break off “any business relationship with the Sickl family with immediate effect based on the current state of knowledge” and the “Hinti-Cup event will also be examined as an alternative,” wrote the central defender.
Hinteregger partner a “familiar face of the right-wing scene”
The “Hinti-Cup”, a hobby tournament by and with the 29-year-old, takes place in Carinthia, Austria. “From 16th to 19th June 2022 we will celebrate my 2 worlds, my 2 hearts in Sirnitz and we will all spend a casual and unprecedented weekend dedicated to football, the best music and cross-border ties,” says von Hinteregger the event’s website.
Football and music are planned. Many concerts are on the program, including DJ Ötzi and Vega. The Frankfurt rapper is part of the Eintracht scene and also writes lyrics about the club. The festival apparently attracts many fans from Frankfurt.
As Austrian journalist Michael Bonvalot revealed, Hinteregger organizes the tournament with a questionable partner: the former Graz FPÖ councilor Sickl. Bonvalot calls him a “very well-known face in the Austrian right-wing scene”.
Sickl is said to have had connections to the extreme right-wing scene in his youth. At the age of just 17, he was a member of the banned German neo-Nazi organization “Nationalist Front”. In recent years he has shown himself to be a supporter of the Identitarian movement.
When the New Right marches, he is said to have worked with the security service, among other things. He is also said to have rented rooms to the group and donated money. According to research, he is said to have even organized events with the central figure of the New Right, Götz Kubitschek.
Sirnitz does not even have 300 inhabitants
Sickl was also listed as a press contact on the website until Thursday morning, but has since been replaced.
Bonvalot’s accusation: “It’s rather unlikely that Hinteregger doesn’t have at least an idea of who he’s working with.”
The town of Sirnitz has fewer than 300 inhabitants, and Hinteregger’s father Franz is the head of the municipal office. Sickl is a local FPÖ member, like his mother Elisabeth, who was Federal Minister for Labour, Health and Social Affairs for the right-wing populist party from February to April 2000.
Due to a restructuring, she then moved to the office of Federal Minister for Social Security and Generations, but had to leave this position in October 2000 at the request of her party. Elisabeth Sickl owns the Albeck Castle, where some concerts will take place during the “Hinti-Cup”.
Clear statement from Eintracht Frankfurt
Finally, on Thursday evening, Eintracht Frankfurt also published a statement on the subject.
They had “no knowledge of the content and form of the business relationship,” emphasized the SBU, which at the same time demanded a “clear distancing” from Hinteregger. The association stands for “tolerance, cosmopolitanism and internationality”.
What’s more: “Anyone who wears the jersey of Eintracht Frankfurt out of this conviction, which we expect from each and every one of our players, cannot at the same time enter into a conscious business relationship with a person who has repeatedly given political testimony about it in word, deed and office that she stands for exclusion, discrimination, racism and social division.”
The club bosses “haven’t been able to reach Hinteregger yet” and have only been in contact with his advisor. “In this respect, the only thing that remains at the moment is the reference to the player’s statement via Instagram,” wrote Eintracht, who, however, “has no doubts that Hinteregger is a native, but also a cosmopolitan and tolerant character who is alien to discrimination.”