Three Rapid Vienna soccer players were not selected for national team duty after video emerged of them taking part in post-match celebrations shouting homophobic chants with a selection of the crowd.
Guido Burgstaller, Marco Grüll and Niklas Hedl were seen, among others, chanting after the club defeated rivals Austria Vienna on February 25.
Austria’s men’s national team manager Ralf Rangnick said he left the trio out for the upcoming fixtures against Slovakia and Turkey after he and the coaching staff watched videos of the incident.
Rangnick said Tuesday the three apologized to him, but he expected the players to “really take a serious look at this issue and understand what it means for people when they are publicly insulted and discriminated in this way. That’s something I won’t tolerate in my team.”
The former interim manager for Manchester United said the decision was not permanent, but the players would have to prove they have learned from their actions.
“Paying lip service to an apology because they’ve now realized what an echo it has caused is no excuse,” Rangnick continued. “For me, it’s not about what you can say, you can say a lot. The deciding factor is what the behavior looks like.”
Burgstaller, Rapid Vienna’s club captain, issued an apology online for the “absolute misconduct.”
“We bear full responsibility for what happened and deeply regret this action. We all distance ourselves from any kind of discrimination and homophobia and will deal with this issue internally within the club and the team and take further action in this regard,” he said.
Grüll also issued a statement accepting any forthcoming consequences and to “sincerely apologize.”
“Like my fellow players, I also clearly distance myself from any kind of exclusion; homophobia must have no place in our society,” Grüll stated.
The club released a statement the day after the match win, saying: “You can see and hear inappropriate and insulting statements that should not have been made like that and for which SK Rapid as a whole can only ask for forgiveness.”
The Austrian Football League has suspended Burgstaller, Grüll, Hedl, as well as teammates Thorsten Schick and Maximilian Hofmann.
The club’s managing director Steffen Hofmann and assistant coach Stefan Kulovits were also disciplined by the league.
