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Werder Bremen's new signing Marco Grüll is one of three professionals who were not selected for the national team because of homophobic chants
Photo: GEPA pictures / David Bitzan / IMAGO
The homophobia scandal at the Vienna city derby has further consequences: Some players had already been temporarily banned because of their involvement in discriminatory chants, and their team Rapid Vienna also had points deducted.
Now ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick has not nominated three of the players for the upcoming training camp in Marbella, Spain, or for the tests against Slovakia (March 23 in Bratislava) and Turkey (March 26 in Vienna).
These are Werder Bremen's new signing Marco Grüll, former Bundesliga professional Guido Burgstaller and Rapid goalkeeper Niklas Hedl.
When asked at the squad announcement on Monday evening, Rangnick emphasized that this decision was directly linked to the incident at the end of February.
"This is something that I will not tolerate in a team where I am a coach - whether at the club or here with the national team," said the national coach.
However, his decision against the trio is not final.
"In that case, I expect the boys to seriously address this issue and understand what it means for people when they are publicly insulted or discriminated against in such a way," explained Rangnick.
Rapid Vienna defeated city rivals Austria in the derby on February 25th for the first time in several years and celebrated extensively afterwards.
As numerous video recordings document, there were several errors.
Among other things, Captain Burgstaller's team sang homophobic chants.
Grüll, Burgstaller and other professionals were therefore banned for a few games by the Austrian Bundesliga's criminal senate last week.
In addition, managing director Steffen Hofmann and assistant coach Stefan Kulovits received penalties.
zob/dpa