The story about Martin Hinteregger and a right-wing extremist politician never ends. Now the footballer has spoken again.
Eintracht defender Martin Hinteregger has again criticized interview statements about his business relationship to a right-wing extremist politician in his native Carinthia irritated. Hinteregger once again defended his contact with Heinrich Sickl and caused a shake of the head with a comparison. “I know that he was an FPÖ politician, which isn’t a bad thing in Austria. But I didn’t know anything about the identitarian movement and I didn’t know what that meant either. I’ve been away for too long for that,” Hinteregger told the Standard in Austria.
“In Germany, many bring the FPÖ and AfD on the same level, but the AfD is ten times worse,” continued the defender. Sickl was involved in organizing the “Hinti-Cups” hobby tournament organized by Hinteregger in Sirnitz in Carinthia. Hinteregger avoided condemning Sickl despite his connections to the far-right scene. “I met him as a positive, nice person,” said the 29-year-old. “After I know the story, the perception and view is of course different.” Hinteregger stated that Sickl’s right-wing extremist attitude was not warned: “A few Sirnitzers of his age knew it well. A warning would have been good, then I probably would have reacted differently from the start to take the fire out. ”
When asked about the fact that Eintracht President Peter Fischer and the whole Frankfurt club clearly stand for tolerance and cosmopolitanism, as well as against right-wing extremism, Hinteregger said: “If I only thought a little differently, I would never have had this status and this life in Frankfurt That would be completely contradictory because I embody this tolerance and cosmopolitanism. Otherwise I would never have been able to become the face of unity.”
Hinteregger sees himself as a victim
Hinteregger had already commented on the affair surrounding the “Hinti Cup” on Sky at the weekend. At first he thought the media reports about Sickl and him were a joke. “Only on the second day did I realize that it was serious and I was a little sad,” said Hinteregger. He argued that he had four companies and therefore could not know everything about all of his business partners.
“Anyone who has common sense knows that everything that happened there was just nonsense in the truest sense of the word. There was a media hunt and I was the focus of it,” Hinteregger criticized the public reporting. The Eintracht defender sees himself as a victim in this context.
“I’m also not sure if I wasn’t just being used as a pawn for some political thing,” said the Austrian international. By that he meant in particular the differences between left and right groups, which would now receive more attention with the help of reports about his person.
